In a significant move, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced a delay in the implementation of the Basel Committee’s crypto regulations from 2026 to 2027, providing banks with additional time to adapt to the new framework.
The decision comes after the MAS received feedback from 13 parties with ties to the finance and Web3 industries, including stablecoin issuer Circle, expressing concerns about the new crypto laws. The regulator had initially planned to introduce the new crypto banking regulations on January 1, 2026, but has now pushed back the date to January 1, 2027, or potentially later.
Regulatory Arbitrage Concerns
A majority of respondents who provided feedback to the MAS expressed concerns that the implementation of the Basel crypto asset capital regulations on January 1, 2026, or sooner could lead to possible “regulatory arbitrage.” This refers to the practice of companies exploiting differences in regulations to minimize costs or avoid unfavorable rules. In response to these concerns, the MAS has decided to give banks an additional year to adapt to the Basel Committee’s upcoming regulations on global banking supervision standards for crypto asset exposures.
Global Regulatory Landscape
Singapore’s decision to delay the implementation of the Basel Committee’s crypto framework comes as other regions are moving forward with their own regulations. Hong Kong, for example, has developed similar capital requirements for crypto assets based on the Basel regulations and plans to implement them in January 2026. The European Union has already begun to integrate the revised Basel crypto standard through its Capital Requirements Regulation III (CRR3), which came into force on January 1, 2025.
Basel Committee Framework
The Basel Committee framework, first presented in mid-2022, aims to ensure consistent international regulatory treatment and sets minimum capital requirements for credit risk, market risk, and other risks associated with crypto assets. The framework divides crypto assets into two groups: Group 1, which consists of tokenized traditional assets with stable value, and Group 2, which consists of pure crypto assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). Each group is associated with different risk weights, including a risk weight of 250% for Group 1b and a higher risk weight of 1,250% for Group 2b crypto assets.
For more information on the MAS’s decision to delay the implementation of the Basel Committee’s crypto regulations, please visit https://crypto.news/singapore-delays-basel-crypto-banking-rules-to-2027/.
