Singapore’s Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is accelerating its drive to establish a robust, scalable, and secure tokenized financial ecosystem, announcing plans to trial tokenized MAS bills next year and introduce legislation regulating stablecoins.
The announcement came during a keynote address at the Singapore FinTech Festival by MAS Managing Director Chia Der Jiun, who emphasized the central bank’s focus on both domestic innovation and international alignment.
“Tokenization has lifted off the ground. But have asset-backed tokens achieved escape velocity? Not yet,” Chia remarked, highlighting that while tokenization is gaining traction, full adoption of asset-backed digital financial instruments remains a work in progress.
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He stressed that MAS has been refining its stablecoin regulatory framework, with draft legislation expected to be prepared soon. The emphasis will be on sound reserve backing and reliable redemption, ensuring that stablecoins can serve as trustworthy instruments for payments and settlement.
Advancing Digital Asset Trials and CBDCs
MAS is actively supporting trials under the BLOOM initiative, which explores the use of tokenized bank liabilities and regulated stablecoins for settlement. This initiative reflects MAS’s broader goal of integrating digital assets into conventional financial infrastructure, ensuring liquidity, transparency, and operational efficiency.
Chia also highlighted the successful live trial of Singapore dollar wholesale CBDC conducted by the country’s three major banks—DBS, OCBC, and UOB—in interbank overnight lending transactions.
“In the CBDC space, I am pleased to announce that the three Singapore banks, DBS, OCBC, and UOB, have successfully conducted interbank overnight lending transactions using the first live trial issuance of Singapore dollar wholesale CBDC,” he said.
A CBDC, or central bank digital currency, is a digital form of central bank money that can be used to streamline settlements, reduce transaction friction, and strengthen systemic trust.
Looking forward, MAS plans to expand trials to include tokenized MAS bills settled with CBDC, marking a significant step in bridging tokenized financial instruments with traditional capital markets operations. To further guide market participants, MAS will publish a regulatory guide on tokenized capital markets products this week, designed to provide clarity on compliance, risk management, and operational standards.
International Coordination and Cross-Border Digital Finance
Singapore’s approach to tokenized finance is not limited to domestic experimentation. MAS has announced cooperation agreements with international central banks, including the Bank of England and the Bank of Thailand, to conduct experiments aimed at enabling real-time, secure, and interoperable foreign exchange transactions across jurisdictions.
Additionally, MAS signed a memorandum of understanding with Deutsche Bundesbank to collaborate on cross-border digital asset settlement. The partnership aims to enhance market liquidity and efficiency through asset tokenization, signaling Singapore’s ambition to set global standards for the integration of digital and traditional finance.
Implications for Singapore and Global Financial Markets
Singapore’s initiatives reflect a strategic vision to position the city-state as a hub for tokenized capital markets and digital assets, while ensuring robust regulatory frameworks. MAS is aiming to create a secure and scalable ecosystem that can support innovation, improve settlement efficiency, and foster financial inclusion by combining trials of tokenized MAS bills and CBDCs with stablecoin regulation and international collaboration.
The cross-border experiments and regulatory guidance signal that Singapore is taking a proactive role in shaping global standards for tokenized finance, positioning itself as a model for central banks worldwide. The combination of domestic CBDC trials, regulatory clarity for stablecoins, and international partnerships demonstrates a comprehensive approach, blending technological innovation with risk management and legal certainty.
MAS’s efforts are also expected to accelerate the adoption of digital finance globally, offering a blueprint for central banks seeking to leverage tokenized instruments for capital markets, cross-border transactions, and payments efficiency, while ensuring that these instruments remain secure, reliable, and interoperable.