Temasek says it's not looking to invest in crypto firms right now
Rohit Sipahimalani, chief investment officer of Temasek Holdings Pte, speaks during a news conference in Singapore, on Tuesday, July 11, 2023. Ore Huiying | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek is not currently looking to invest in crypto companies amid regulatory uncertainty in the sector, its Chief Investment Officer Rohit Sipahimalani said. "There's a lot of regulatory uncertainty in this environment. And I do think that be very difficult for us to make another investment and exchange in the middle of all this regulatory uncertainty," Sipahimalani told CNBC in a Tuesday interview. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged top U.S. crypto exchange Ripple for breaching local securities laws by selling its native token XRP without first registering it with the regulator. The SEC separately charged another U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase for operating as an unregistered securities exchange, a broker or a clearing firm. It also accused Coinbase of failing to register the offer and sale of its staking program — which allows customers to earn rewards for holding certain cryptocurrencies.
"If you have the right regulatory framework, and we are comfortable with it, and you have the right investment opportunity, there's no reason for us to not to look at it," Sipahimalani said. "But as I said, at this point in time, we would not be comfortable investing in exchanges given the way things are right now." He added that Temasek never intended to invest in cryptocurrency. "We've never been looking to invest in cryptocurrencies. Even the investment in FTX, we'll be talking about investing in an exchange, which allowed us to get fee-based revenue without thinking [of] balance sheet risk or any trading risks," said Sipahimalani. On Tuesday, Temasek posted its worst returns since 2016, weighed by macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges.
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Source: CNBC
