Gemini has received a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, clearing the exchange to offer digital payment token services and cross-border money transfers without transaction volume limits in one of Asia’s most competitive crypto hubs.
The approval closes a 23-month restructuring effort that began when the company moved its Singapore customers to a locally incorporated entity in April 2025 specifically to qualify for the license. Until that restructuring, Gemini had served the city-state from an overseas entity, a structure MAS does not accept for licensed payment activity.
The license puts Gemini in the same regulatory tier as Coinbase and OKX, both of which already hold MPI status in Singapore. Under MAS rules, an MPI license covers payment services above specified thresholds, and crypto firms holding it can serve retail and institutional clients on a regulated footing. Gemini’s Singapore operation currently offers spot trading, digital-asset custody and over-the-counter services, and the new license adds formal permission for cross-border transfers.
What the license actually allows
A Major Payment Institution license sits at the top of Singapore’s Payment Services Act framework. Firms below transaction thresholds can operate under standard licenses, but once volumes cross the cap, they need MPI status, which comes with heavier capital, audit and technology-risk obligations. For a crypto exchange, the practical difference is headroom: no ceiling on transaction volumes per service, and the ability to build payment-adjacent products such as stablecoin transfers for corporate clients.
For Gemini, that headroom matters. The exchange has been pushing institutional custody and settlement services, and Singapore hosts a dense concentration of family offices, fund managers and payment companies that want a regulated counterparty. A locally licensed entity lets Gemini pitch those clients directly instead of routing them to an offshore platform.
The license also imposes obligations. MAS expects locally incorporated licensees to maintain local senior management, conduct independent audits, hold base capital sized to their activity, and demonstrate that they can monitor transactions for money-laundering risk in real time. Firms that let those standards slip have lost licenses before. In 2024 and 2025 the regulator tightened its stance on crypto firms serving retail customers, restricting credit incentives and requiring risk-awareness assessments before certain products can be marketed.
Why the timing matters for Gemini
The approval lands at a delicate moment for the company. Gemini remains tied up in the fallout from its Earn program, which collapsed with Genesis in 2022 and left the exchange facing litigation and regulatory scrutiny in the United States. Its founders have also drawn fire domestically, including criticism over political donations that weighed on its standing with US regulators.
A clean bill from MAS gives Gemini something concrete to show other regulators. Licensing processes in the United Kingdom, the European Union under MiCA, and several Asian jurisdictions ask applicants to demonstrate that they already operate under mature regimes. A Singapore MPI license, from a regulator known for rejecting or forcing out firms that fail its standards, is among the strongest references a crypto firm can hold.
The review process itself was long by any standard. Gemini began shifting customers to the local entity in early 2025 and spent the following months meeting MAS requirements on governance, local management, technology controls and anti-money-laundering systems. Exchanges that rushed the process have seen applications stall for years, so the 23-month timeline reflects an unusually thorough file rather than a slow regulator.
There is also a competitive angle inside the company’s own strategy. Gemini has been expanding its derivatives and staking businesses in other jurisdictions while trimming costs, and its revenue remains concentrated in trading fees. Institutional custody in Asia offers a fee stream that does not depend on retail trading volumes, which have been volatile this year as bitcoin swung between rate-hike fears and renewed inflows.
Singapore as a scoreboard
Singapore’s approvals have become a competitive scoreboard for global exchanges. Coinbase secured its MPI license in 2023, OKX followed with a full license in 2024, and Independent Reserve and Crypto.com operate under MAS oversight as well. Each approval narrows the set of exchanges able to serve Singapore’s institutions, and each rejection or withdrawal gets noticed across the industry. MAS has shut firms out for weak governance and questionable token listings, which is why the market treats its approvals as a quality signal rather than a formality.
The city-state’s approach contrasts with Hong Kong, which reopened to licensed platforms more recently, and Japan, where exchange regulation is strict but the stablecoin framework is only now taking shape. Firms seeking a single Asian anchor license have generally ranked Singapore first, Hong Kong second, and Japan third on speed, with Singapore’s stablecoin rules finalized earlier than its neighbors.
Regulatory competition between jurisdictions is also intensifying. The United States, after years of enforcement-led policy, has moved toward market-structure legislation that would give federal agencies clearer jurisdiction over digital assets. The European Union’s MiCA regime is now fully in force, and the United Kingdom has finalized its own rulebook with a compliance date in late 2027. In that environment, an exchange’s license portfolio is becoming part of its valuation, since each approval reduces the risk that any single regulator can shut down a core business line.
The regional growth picture
Asia remains the growth engine for crypto exchange volume this year. Korean retail activity has stayed elevated despite tighter disclosure rules, Japanese institutions have begun allocating to spot bitcoin ETFs listed offshore, and stablecoin settlement volume across Southeast Asia has grown as payment firms look for cheaper cross-border rails. Exchanges holding Singapore licenses are positioned to capture the institutional side of that flow, since asset managers in the region typically require a licensed local counterparty before allocating.
Gemini has not disclosed Singapore user numbers or local trading volume, and the company did not announce new products alongside the license. The local entity continues to operate under the same name, now with the license covering services offered from Singapore to the wider region. For a firm whose US reputation has taken repeated hits since 2022, that regulatory footing abroad may prove the more valuable asset.