A number of Twitter posts alleged crypto investors in Singapore had turned to Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX over Binance after the latter withdrew its bid to get regulatory approval in the country last year and was placed on the regulator’s Investor Alert List (IAL).

Some Twitter users pointed fingers at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which is responsible for regulating and licensing crypto operators, for having targeted Binance and let FTX.com continue to serve customers in the country.

MAS only lists entities that may be “wrongly perceived” as being locally regulated on the IAL, as was the case for Binance.com, the MAS said in an emailed statement to CoinDesk.

“It would not be meaningful for MAS to list all unlicensed entities on the IAL. MAS did not have cause to list FTX on the same basis as Binance,” the regulator said.

Although Singapore regulators haven’t made any moves on FTX yet, the MAS had previously vowed to crack down on “bad” crypto operators in the country. The warning came after a number of big industry names with ties to Singapore – like crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and exchange platform Vauld – bit the dust earlier this year.

（By Sandali Handagama）