Gemini Lands Singapore Major Payment Institution License After Two-Year Approval Wait

Gemini has received a full Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, completing an approval process that stretched across almost two years and clearing the exchange to offer regulated digital payment token and cross-border money transfer services in the city-state.

The license, granted on Sept. 9, covers Gemini Digital Payments Singapore, the exchange’s locally incorporated entity. The approval ends the company’s reliance on a temporary exemption and places responsibility for its regulated Singapore services directly with the local subsidiary rather than the wider Gemini group.

## What the MPI license actually unlocks

Singapore’s Payment Services Act divides licensed firms into standard payment institutions and major payment institutions. The distinction is largely about scale. Standard institutions face transaction-volume caps on the monthly value they can process across regulated payment services, while MPI holders can exceed those limits.

For Gemini, that means the local entity can now operate digital payment token services and cross-border money transfer business without the volume ceilings that constrain smaller licensees. The MAS Financial Institutions Directory lists Gemini Digital Payments Singapore as a licensed major payment institution with both activities approved.

The upgrade is not a free pass. MAS notes that major payment institutions face more comprehensive regulation precisely because their larger operations can create greater financial and operational risks. Gemini must maintain anti-money laundering controls, customer due diligence procedures, technology risk management and regulatory reporting standards on an ongoing basis. MAS can impose conditions, conduct inspections or take enforcement action if a licensed provider breaches its obligations.

## A two-year road from in-principle approval

Gemini had operated in Singapore since 2020, but the formal licensing path began in earnest in October 2024, when MAS granted the company in-principle approval for the MPI license. That preliminary sign-off covered crypto and cross-border payment services while Gemini worked to satisfy the regulator’s remaining conditions.

A structural change followed in April 2025, when Gemini transferred its Singapore customers from U.S.-based Gemini Trust Company to Gemini Digital Payments Singapore. Customers were informed through a support notice that the transition would change their contracting entity, and they had to accept updated user agreements and privacy terms to keep using the platform. The local company then operated under a temporary exemption while its license application remained under review.

The final license ends that arrangement for the approved activities. Authorization applies to Gemini’s Singapore entity and its approved services, not automatically to every product offered by the wider Gemini group.

## Retail and institutional ambitions

Gemini Digital Payments Singapore currently offers spot cryptocurrency trading, custody and over-the-counter services. The company has not announced new products or a launch schedule tied directly to the license.

Gemini President Cameron Winklevoss said the approval validates the company’s investment in Singapore, while Chief Executive Tyler Winklevoss described the country as a strategic hub for serving both retail and institutional customers across the region. The company did not disclose its Singapore customer count, transaction volume or revenue in the announcement.

The exchange has also expanded local asset support recently, enabling XRP deposits and withdrawals through the XRP Ledger for customers in Singapore, allowing direct transfers without routing them through another supported network.

## Singapore’s selective licensing club

Gemini joins a growing roster of digital asset companies holding MPI licenses in Singapore, including Coinbase, Crypto.com, OKX, Bitstamp and institutional liquidity provider Cumberland, which received its own digital token and cross-border payment services approval from MAS in July.

The framework remains deliberately selective. MAS distinguishes between firms with local authorization and offshore platforms that may still be accessible to Singapore residents from abroad — an international exchange’s global operations do not automatically permit it to serve the local market. The regulator has also shown willingness to act against companies that fail to meet its standards.

For Gemini, the license strengthens its position in Asia at a moment when regulators across the region are applying entity-specific licensing requirements to crypto platforms. The approval also arrives as Gemini continues rebuilding regulatory standing elsewhere following its past run-ins with U.S. authorities.

The next measurable developments will be any new locally approved products, regional hiring, or changes to Gemini’s Singapore service lineup. Until then, the license stands as both a milestone for the exchange and another signal that Singapore intends to keep its crypto market regulated, licensed and firmly onshore.