Singapore has been ranked the leading country in global crypto adoption in 2025, a position linked to a 63% surge in real-world asset (RWA) tokenization to an estimated US$2.57 billion this year. This shift is credited to a combination of regulatory clarity from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and accelerating institutional issuance that has pushed tokenization from pilots into market-scale products.
Regulatory architecture and licensing regime
MAS has pursued a tightly calibrated regime that balances market access with institutional-grade controls. The Digital Token Service Provider (DTSP) license under the Financial Services and Markets Act (FSMA) and Payment Services Act (PSA) imposes minimum capital of around SGD 1,000,000 and a hard compliance deadline of 30 June 2025 for entities offering digital token services. Stablecoin issuers must hold 100% reserve assets, submit monthly independent audits and segregate reserves with approved custodians under the stablecoin framework introduced in 2023, while anti-money laundering (AML) measures incorporate the FATF Travel Rule for transfers above SGD 1,500.
The regulatory package also prioritizes custody resilience and consumer protection. Rules require that the bulk of customer tokens be held in offline custody, with a reported 90% cold-storage practice underpinning public confidence in local platforms. That assurance, combined with institutional rule-sets and clearer settlement mechanics, has made the jurisdiction attractive to banks and asset managers seeking tokenized products and predictable compliance outcomes, even as critics argue that the regime raises compliance costs.
RWA tokenization—the conversion of tangible assets into blockchain tokens—is presented as the primary market catalyst. Tokenized U.S. Treasury products alone exceeded US$7.4 billion by mid-2025, and industry analysis links the broader RWA trend to projections of a multi-trillion-dollar addressable market by 2030. Tokenization enables fractional ownership and on-chain settlement, which can increase liquidity for traditionally illiquid assets and broaden investor access across institutional and qualified-retail segments.
Institutional participation has been decisive in validating the framework. Project-level collaboration between MAS and market participants, described collectively as “regulated innovation,” has reduced perceived operational and legal risk for large financial institutions. As a result, tokenization has been used to launch new products—tokenized bonds, funds and alternative-credit instruments—while also supporting novel payment rails, with on-chain payrolls reported to account for 9.6% of payments in scope of the study and overall retail penetration exceeding 11% of Singapore’s population.
Singapore’s ascent to the top of the 2025 rankings reflects a coordinated policy and market response. Regulatory clarity has been translated into institutional token issuance, robust custody practices and growing user uptake, positioning the city-state as a reference model for jurisdictions seeking to scale tokenized finance under stringent governance.