SINGAPORE - Digital brokerage Moomoo Financial Singapore has received in-principle approval for a major payment institution licence to offer cryptocurrency services.

The firm on Dec 20 said that once it gets the full licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), it will be able to offer crypto services to both retail and institutional investors here.

This comes more than two years after it applied for the licence in May 2021.

So far, more than a dozen firms have been granted full licences for digital payment token services.

In a statement, the firm said Singapore has emerged as a major cryptocurrency hub in Asia in recent years, driven by support from MAS to foster Singapore as a digital asset hub.

It added that the value of investments in cryptocurrency and blockchain reached US$1.2 billion (S$1.6 billion) in 2022 in Singapore, up from US$109.75 million in 2020, according to market research firm Statista.

In a recent survey of over 150 global institutional investors by Swiss crypto bank Sygnum, those in Singapore tend to view crypto as a long-term investment.

The firm also cited a report by PwC Singapore and the Singapore Fintech Association that the payments sector appears to be the most mature segment in Singapore’s fintech scene.

“Over the years, we have seen an increase in volume of queries from our clients with regard to the trading of digital payment tokens on our platform,” said Moomoo Singapore’s chief executive Gavin Chia.

Moomoo Singapore, whose parent company is Nasdaq-listed Futu Holdings, was set up here in March 2021. Futu Holdings is backed by Chinese tech giant Tencent.

Through its digital platform, it offers investment products for trading and holds a capital markets services licence here.