The sentiment towards crypto went south and stayed muted for the whole of 2023’s crypto winter until news that spot Bitcoin ETFs have been approved pushed Bitcoin prices up to an all-time high of above US$70,000.
Of the US$8 billion ($10.8 billion) in funds stolen from customers by the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX that was laundered into real estate purchases, political donations and other investments, a sizeable amount belongs to Singapore investors.
It was found that investors from Singapore made up the second-largest group on FTX and 5% of web traffic from January to October 2022. Making headlines were stories of punters here losing life savings to the exchange and state investor Temasek Holdings slashing the compensation of the team and senior management involved in making the US$210 million bet gone wrong as a deterrent for making risky crypto bets.
