A warning statement has been issued by the central bank of Singapore, The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), about a website seeking bitcoin investments by using comments fallaciously credited to Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of MAS.
The bank stated that all the statements which are credited to Tharman on the website are wrong and misleading apart from the statement in which he said that the cryptocurrency of the country is trading low.
MAS has warned the public to stay away from providing any personal or financial information on the website. The website asks people to create a bitcoin account using a bank account or credit card.
Risk of investment in cryptocurrencies was noted by MAS earlier. It had issued a notice stating the risks involved with the investment in cryptocurrency on December 19, 2017, itself. Tharman stated in a response to a Parliamentary question on February 5, 2018, that if citizens are investing in cryptocurrencies then they might ‘lose their shirts’.
It has been also suggested by the bank that people those who are suspicious about the investment in digital currency should contact law enforcement.
Singapore officials hastened their regulatory activities since last year as Singapore became a retreat for cryptocurrency exchanges and ICOs following the crackdown on cryptocurrency exchanges in China.
Eight cryptocurrency trading platforms were notified by the MAS, without naming them, in May which were authorized before offering digital token trades for token constituting securities. The authority issued the notice after witnessing an upsurge in the numbers of exchanges and token offerings.
An ICO was also closed down on the backdrop of violation of securities law. The MAS found out that the tokens represented equity ownership in a company without the required MAS registered prospectus.
A guideline was issued by the MAS in last November to the digital token offerings while reviewing if some more regulations are required to protect the investors from the risk of investment in cryptocurrency.
