Singapore central bank says three business days is ‘timely transfer’ for stablecoins
While blockchains continue to revolutionize payments by allowing instant transfers, Singapore’s central bank believes that three business days is a “timely transfer” for single-currency stablecoins (SCS), which is similar to transfer speed requirements for domestic money transfers.
On Aug. 15, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) released its regulatory framework for stablecoins in the city-state. In the newly-published guidelines, the financial regulator highlighted that it would consider three business days as a timely transfer for SCS despite some feedback calling for a shorter time frame.
According to MAS, while SCS transfers may be expected to be completed more quickly because they are done on a blockchain, transfers of MAS-regulated stablecoins may “occur on various types of blockchain infrastructure that may have different service standards.” The central bank wrote that these types of blockchain infrastructures may not always be under the control of intermediaries. MAS wrote:
“MAS will retain the proposed timeline of three business days. This would mirror the existing money transmission requirement for domestic money transfer services.”
Apart from stablecoin transfers, MAS also indicated that SCS redemptions need a longer time period. According to the document, redeeming stablecoins back to fiat will be given five business days. This response from MAS came despite some respondents arguing that redemptions must be done “within a shorter time frame, or even on a real-time basis.”
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According to MAS, it will proceed with the requirement that issuers return the value of MAS-regulated SCS to holders within five business days. The regulator explained:
“The redemption timeline is intended to strike a balance between responsiveness to users’ requests and ensuring there is enough time for the SCS issuer to do so in an orderly manner under various stress situations.”
Cointelegraph reached out to MAS for comment but did not get an immediate response.
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The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance has clarified its views on proof-of-work mining, arguing that such activities do not constitute “the offer and sale of securities” as outlined in the Securities Act of 1933, so long as they meet certain criteria.
In a March 20 statement, the SEC division addressed the “mining of crypto assets that are intrinsically linked to the programmatic functioning of a public, permissionless network” and determined that decentralized PoW networks should not be treated as securities.
Although the SEC’s statement did not name any specific blockchain, its views on certain PoW activities apply to permissionless networks where mining is used to participate in the consensus mechanism. The statement applies to solo miners and mining pools participating in such networks.
The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance gives its view on PoW “protocol mining activities.” Source: SEC
Although Bitcoin (BTC) is by far the largest and most significant PoW chain, there are several others, including Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC) and Monero (XMR). US regulators have long considered Bitcoin to be a commodity and not a security — a view that also extends to Litecoin and Dogecoin, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Source: Cointelegraph
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A pro-crypto policy tailwind
Digital asset markets, including PoW chains, are set to flourish under US President Donald Trump, who has vowed to make America the world’s blockchain and crypto capital.
In addition to appointing a pro-crypto replacement to Gary Gensler at the SEC, the president has established the Council of Advisers on Digital Assets to advance common-sense regulations for the industry.
On March 19, the council’s executive director, Bo Hines, revealed that a comprehensive stablecoin bill could land on the president’s desk in a matter of months.
The same day, the Blockchain Association, an industry advocacy group, said a cryptocurrency market structure bill is expected by the summer.
“I think we’re close to being able to get those done for August […] They’re doing a lot of work on that behind the scenes right now,” said Kristin Smith, the Blockchain Association’s CEO.
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Onchain sleuth ZachXBT said he had identified the mysterious whale who profited $20 million from highly leveraged trades on Hyperliquid and GMX as a British hacker going by the name William Parker.
According to ZachXBT’s March 20 X post, Parker — who was previously known as Alistair Packover before changing his name — was arrested last year for allegedly stealing around $1 million from two casinos in 2023.
Parker also made headlines a decade ago for allegations of hacking and gambling, ZachXBT said.
“It is abundantly clear WP/AP has not learned his lesson over the years after serving time for fraud and will likely continue gambling,” ZachXBT said.
Source: ZachXBT
Related: Hyperliquid ups margin requirements after $4 million liquidation loss
ZachXBT said his findings are based on a phone number provided by a person who allegedly received a payment from the whale trader’s wallet address.
He also said that public wallet addresses associated with the whale trader received proceeds from past onchain phishing schemes.
Cointelegraph has not independently verified ZachXBT’s claims.
Massive leveraged bets
The mysterious whale rose to prominence after profiting approximately $20 million from highly leveraged trades — in some cases with up to 50x leverage — on decentralized perpetuals exchanges Hyperliquid and GMX.
On March 12, the trader intentionally liquidated an approximately $200 million Ether (ETH) long, causing Hyperliquid’s liquidity pool to lose $4 million.
Meanwhile, the whale earned profits of some $1.8 million.
Hyperliquid said the liquidation was not an exploit but rather a predictable consequence of how the trading platform operates under extreme conditions. The DEX later revised its collateral rules for traders with open positions to guard against such occurrences in the future.
On March 14, the whale took another multimillion-long position, this time on Chainlink (LINK).
Perpetual futures, or “perps,” are leveraged futures contracts with no expiry date. Traders deposit margin collateral — typically USDC (USDC) for Hyperliquid — to secure open positions.
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