Hydra X has received approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for a capital markets services (CMS) license, the fintech said Wednesday.
The Singapore-based company’s CMS license will allow it to deal in and provide custodial services for capital market products, including tokenised securities, according to a press release. That provides a regulatory imprimatur for trading platforms for digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, in the city-state.
Hydra X provides regulatory-compliant, blockchain capital markets infrastructure services to institutional clients. Its technology supports interoperability between traditional and digital assets, and it is tailored for use by exchanges, banks, brokers and other financial institutions.
Sandbox Graduation
The approval also marks Hydra X’s graduation from MAS’ fintech regulatory sandbox program for providing custodial services, the release said.
A regulatory sandbox is an environment where regulations are suspended – or sometimes don’t yet exist -- allowing startups to test out new business models and technologies with real customers on a limited basis for a fixed period of time.
Hydra X said it was the first company to graduate from the sandbox before MAS’ deadline.
Expanding Services
Daryl Low, CEO of Hydra X, the license would expand the range of services his company would be able to provide, particularly for clients looking to tokenise their assets.
He said the MAS sandbox support played a key role.
«It has allowed us to commercialise our technology in a live environment as one of the first movers in this space, while providing sufficient regulatory oversight to encourage adoption amongst institutional clients. We continue to see increasing interest in the assets digitisation space and expect to play a bigger role in the development of the modern financial markets,» Low said in the statement.
Finding Clients
Singapore-listed VCPlus is among Hydra X’s clients, after entering into a licensing deal in September 2021 for custody technology for digital-asset tokens and related services.
In November, Hydra X also entered a joint venture with Malaysia-based and Singapore-listed Hatten Land to develop and operate cryptocurrency exchanges, which were to focus on listing and trading newly minted Bitcoin.
