Singapore Gulf Bank wants to raise at least $50m to buy stablecoin firm: report

Gulf Bank of Singapore aims to raise at least $50 million to acquire a stablecoin payments company in early 2025, insiders say.

Gulf Bank of Singapore is planning to acquire a stablecoin payments company, internal sources who asked not to be identified say, according to a Nov. 25 Bloomberg report. Although they refuse to say which stablecoin firm it will acquire.

Sources say the funds will be used to accelerate product development, improve the bank’s payment network and hire more staff. The bank is currently negotiating with a Middle Eastern sovereign fund as well as several investors who want to sell less than 10 percent of its shares by the first quarter of 2025.

Singapore Gulf Bank was founded by Singapore’s multi-family office Whampoa Group in February this year and is licensed in Bahrain. The firm specializes in managing traditional finance and cryptocurrency on the same platform and plans to offer its services to customers by the end of this year. The startup bank is backed by sovereign wealth fund Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Co and Whampoa Group.

Stablecoins have become a popular choice for banks in many parts of the world due to the reliability of their value, as they are pegged to fiat currencies, mostly the US dollar. Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank and Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group are among the banking firms that have initiated stablecoin studies.

Many countries are in the process of developing crypto hubs and regulations that protect investors as well as companies specializing in blockchain technology and services. Middle Eastern countries such as Bahrain, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are among those competing to attract investors interested in stablecoin and crypto spaces.

Singapore’s own financial regulators, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, recently finalized a regulatory framework for single currency stablecoins. As previously reported by crypto.news, the law will apply to non-bank entities that issue single-currency stablecoins pegged to the Singapore dollar or any G10 currency whose values ​​exceed SGD 5 million or equal to US$3,567.

The regulatory framework covers many points, including requirements for value stability, capital, repayment at nominal value, and disclosure of audit results to users.

Only stablecoin issuers that can meet all the listed criteria can apply to the agency to obtain the status of “MAS-regulated stablecoins”.