<\/p>\n
Tharman Shanmugaratnam, former chair of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, has won the election for the city-state\u2019s presidency with more than 70% of the vote.<\/p>\n
According to multiple reports from Sept. 2, Shanmugaratnam defeated<\/a> presidential candidates Ng Kok Song and Tan Kin Lian to become the next president of Singapore with roughly 70.4% of votes. He will be sworn into office on Sept. 14 \u2014 less than two weeks after the election.<\/p>\n In the lead-up to his presidential campaign, Shanmugaratnam resigned from his position in Singapore\u2019s parliament and at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), where he served as chair from 2011 to 2023. He was also the country’s finance minister from 2007 to 2015. Under Shanmugaratnam, Singapore\u2019s financial regulator witnessed the collapse<\/a> of Three Arrows Capital and Terraform Labs amid the 2022 market crash.<\/p>\n The president-elect reportedly once called crypto assets<\/a> \u201chighly volatile\u201d and \u201chighly risky as investment products\u201d in 2021 warnings to Singapore-based users in his role as MAS chair. The financial regulator granted Crypto.com an in-principle approval to operate in the city-state in June 2022, as well as exemptions for Bitstamp, Coinbase, and Gemini Trust.<\/p>\n Related: <\/em><\/strong>Singapore to require crypto firms to put user assets into trusts by year-end<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Shanmugaratnam, as president, will become the head of state in Singapore, representing the country in diplomatic functions as part of a largely ceremonial role. He will be replacing Halimah Yacob, who served as president since 2017.<\/p>\n Following Shanmugaratnam’s departure from MAS, the financial regulator has announced a revised regulatory framework<\/a> for stablecoins in Singapore as part of a public consultation launched in 2022. In July, Singapore\u2019s high court ruled that cryptocurrencies<\/a> could be treated as personal property akin to fiat money.<\/p>\n