Singapore’s central bank says that the NFT market is still nascent, and rather than regulating it in its current form, it will take a tech-neutral stance. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the Senior Minister in charge of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which is the country’s central bank, made it clear that NFTs will remain unregulated. The MAS does not and cannot regulate all things or products that people choose to invest their money in, as he stated.
For NFTs, their perceived uniqueness, combined with speculative demand, has served to inflate prices, as Tharman says. This potentially puts investors at risk of excessive losses should speculative fervour abate. Regulating the industry would be an extensive task that would involve weighing the legal risks and rights that NFT owners hold, the MAS minister added. In an industry that’s only just finding its feet, it has yet to become clear if existing regulations protect NFT owners.
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