1. What Happened
On 1 September 2026, MAS published a consultation paper with draft amendments to bring its single-currency stablecoin (MAS-SCS) framework into force under the Payment Services (PS) Act. This is the legislation the industry has awaited since MAS finalised its approach in August 2023. It was initially expected in Q4 2025.
The consultation closes 16 October 2026. Subsidiary legislation, holding much of the detail on reserve composition, redemption timelines and recognition conditions, comes later, and no enactment date is set yet. Issuers have time to shape their response and prepare. MAS has signalled a selective, risk-based posture: it expects only a limited number of coins to be authorised or recognised, assessed on financial soundness, business viability and operational track record.
2. Requirements to Issue in Singapore
The MAS-SCS label is opt-in, unlike the mandatory perimeters in the EU, US and Hong Kong. The framework exists “to help consumers and businesses differentiate between stablecoins where the issuers are regulated by MAS for value stability, and stablecoins that are not.” To claim the label, a new standalone stablecoin issuance licence is required.
Core obligations:
- Coins may only be minted against reserves that fully back them at all times, held in segregated trust accounts;
- Redemption at par within prescribed timeframes; a ban on paying interest to holders;
- And the technical capability to trace, freeze and burn coins used illicitly.
All issuers must also custody and ringfence customer monies received before a coin is delivered, and monies owed on redemption but not yet received, on terms similar to e-money issuers. On the fundamentals, Singapore is aligned with both MiCA and the US GENIUS Act (note exception on the nuances on yield in the US).
The main point of international divergence is usually reserve requirements. Indeed, like the EU regime, and unlike the US, the MAS is considering a minimum cash/deposit floor – MiCA already mandates 30% bank deposits (60% for significant tokens). This will be a matter of MJI rebalancing.
Note – the amended PS Act will also allow the MAS to determine a stablecoin as a “Designated Systemic Stablecoin”. This is regardless of whether it is issued in or outside Singapore, and regardless of whether it is regulated under the MAS-SCS framework.
3. Foreign and Multi-Jurisdictional Coins
Reversing its 2023 position, the MAS will permit multi-jurisdictional issuance and recognise substantively-equivalent foreign coins, both conditioned on equivalence assessments, supervisory cooperation, and, for MJI, daily reserve records and monthly reporting.
With these amendments, the MAS is setting up a global standard on stablecoin regulatory interoperability – a hurdle both the US and the EU have recognized. Of note – the US is contemplating the same under the recently issued GENIUS rulemaking by Treasury.
4. How Fireblocks Will Support MAS-SCS Customers
Our capabilities maps directly to what the framework asks of issuers:
- Issuance governance. Mint operations run against quorum approvals and transaction policy enforcement, so coins are only put into circulation under controlled, auditable conditions consistent with the full-backing and par-redemption rules.
- Trace, freeze and burn. The trace, freeze and burn capability MAS would require sits natively in the platform through mint/burn and freeze-and-block controls, giving issuers the technical means to act on coins used illicitly.
- Safeguarding and segregation. Segregation and reserve-custody operations support the immediate ringfencing of pre-issuance and pending-redemption monies that all issuers must hold apart from insolvency.
- Multi-jurisdictional flows. For MJI arrangements, our infrastructure can trace flows across jurisdictions, the visibility needed for the reserve rebalancing and attribution models MAS requires, plus the supporting daily records and monthly reporting.
- Cross-border Network for Payments. Our network supports both retail and wholesale use cases. Note wholesale banks and merchant banks (WMB Entities) will be restricted from issuing SGD stablecoins that retail individuals can freely trade, but may issue stablecoins that can support wholesale use cases such as those that may only be traded among corporates and used for trade finance.
