Binance banned in Malaysia – should Singapore investors be worried?

So this came as yet another surprise to me – Malaysia seems to have just banned Binance. Of course it is kind of difficult to ban Binance outright but in all probability, Malaysia would be just telling its banks and their people to stop using Binance services. Whether it would be effective is anyone’s guess. And whether Malaysians would actually care that their government has banned Binance and actually stop using their services. The Malaysian government had actually sent warnings to Binance since 2020 and they supposedly expect Binance to follow through. Interesting China has banned Binance (or Crypto trading in general) services for years already but seems that P2P activities in RMB are still up and running in Binance.

I honestly don’t know. Seems that there is a major effort by governments around the world to suddenly start banning Binance. Even though they have been in operation since 2017. And the timing seems so convenient – one after another. If governments around the world could coordinate their COVID-19 prevention activities in such well planned manner, we might have completed eradicated COVID-19 virus by now if you ask me. When governments around the world suddenly start doing something together, I get extremely suspicious of their activities.

And what about Singapore? Will our government start to “ban” crypto exchanges like what is happening in other countries? I am not sure but I think it is highly unlikely. Especially seeing that our government’s own investment arm Temasek has shares in Binance Singapore. And if the Singapore government does start to clamp down on such activities, it might jeopardize the image of Singapore as a crypto friendly country. Singapore is indeed quite a popular destination for crypto companies to come in. So I am quite certain that whatever measures the regulators are planning will not be that drastic. And it will unlikely involve an outright ban like in Malaysia. However for those already into the crypto markets, you might want to consider placing a portion of your portfolio somewhere out of Binance for the time being. I have a small post on other alternatives from Binance. It is always good to plan for the worst.

So please take care and watch out for news on Binance. I am hoping things will become more rosy for Binance but it seems that they are being targeted. And as I mentioned countless of times – if you are the biggest in the world, a lot of people will want to put cross hairs on the back of your head.