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- Singapore is steadily establishing itself as a global leader in digital assets and blockchain innovation as it pushes for broader implementation of major tokenization initiatives.
- Project Guardian and others are reportedly moving from the Proof of Concept as the country collaborates with global firms for full implementation.
In November 2024, the Deputy Managing Director (Markets & Development) at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Mr Leong Sing Chiong, highlighted in his opening keynote at the Layer One Summit that the country has witnessed a massive momentum towards tokenization in financial services.
Singapore’s Ongoing Tokenization Initiatives
In his submission, Chiong admitted that the country has been involved in multiple initiatives, including the formation of the Guardian Wholesale Network Industry Group by Citi, HSBC, Schroders, Standard Chartered, and UOB, as highlighted in our earlier discussion.
Apart from that, Singapore has launched the Global Layer One (GL1). The idea was to facilitate the development of “public permissioned foundational digital infrastructure” for the deployment of commercial networks.
According to Chiong, this initiative has since been led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and heavyweight financial institutions, including BNY, Citi, J.P. Morgan, MUFG, and Societe Generale-FORGE, which represent the G3 participation. Later, HSBC and Euroclear joined the initiative.
Together with other developments, Project Guardian, which was mentioned in our recent blog post, is reported to have advanced from the Proof of Concept to broader implementation in 2025.
According to an article recently written by the Managing Director of APAC Ripple, Fiona Murray, Project Guardian is now led by the International Capital Market Association (ICMA), which is steering the transition from experimental pilot to creating the main infrastructure for Real World Assets (RWAs).
It can be recalled that the MAS and Standard Chartered collaborated under this same project to tokenize $500 million of trade finance assets in 2022. As part of its efforts to lead this market, Singapore has also approved the issuance of stablecoins including those from Paxos and StraitsX.
XRPL at the Center
The recent need to address compliance and security challenges has seen institutions embracing public blockchains like XRP Ledger (XRPL) to effectively secure digital identities, reverse fraudulent transactions, and meet regulatory requirements.
Data confirms XRPL’s position in this trend as the value of RWA tokenized on the platform surged from under $5 million at the beginning of the year to $118 million as of June 2025. This comes after Ripple was named as the 23rd most valuable private company, as noted in our recent post.
The significant involvement of XRPL in blockchain innovation is no secret among major institutions in Singapore. Recently, global fintech incubator Tenity partnered with Ripple to support entrepreneurs building on the platform. Murray believes that this accelerator would help new talents and solidify Singapore’s position as a leader in digital innovation.
This accelerator will help cultivate a new generation of talent and unlock scalable use cases on the XRPL that benefit industries and communities across the region, further establishing Singapore as a center for blockchain talent.
It is important to note that Singapore is fast emerging as one of the top leaders in this sector. In 2024, for instance, the country attracted almost $750 million in investments. According to our research, this made up 60% of the total FinTech funding within the country.
In a recent update, CNF disclosed that XRP is also one of the most popular cryptos in Singapore, with 17% of Singaporeans’ crypto portfolio comprising the asset. Meanwhile, the country is not going easy on crypto firms operating within its borders without the required license, as indicated in our earlier coverage.
