Singapore greenlights Bitcoin fund for trading physical BTC

So, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is behind this, and Fintonia just rolled out their Fintonia Bitcoin Physical Fund. They’re also launching the Fintonia Secured Yield Fund, which will actually buy real Bitcoin instead of just trading derivatives. The idea here is to make it easier for larger investors to scoop up Bitcoin directly from them, bypassing all those exchanges. On the upside, this could simplify things for big players, but there’s a catch. The Fintonia Secured Yield Fund aims to give out direct loans to Bitcoin holders. Definitely an interesting approach.

I think this is just only a gimmick, literally all exchanges will hire an security expertise but that's doesn't mean it can't be hacked. Rather than rely on single expertise, it will be better if they added bug bounty. However at least this could save more newbies which often fall on fake or scam exchanges, but yet we can't protect them from ponzi and bitcoin doubler

You're right, but I have mixed feelings about the "insured custodian" part... I have limited knowledge about such services but I'm assuming there'll be added fees [since we're dealing with big players here, that would probably result in significant fees] and in addition to that, If something bad were to happen, how are they going to pay back those amounts [e.g. its value/worth at the time of the purchase or something else]? They did mention not "rehypothecating the BTCitcoin collaterals" but that seems too good to be true!

Singapore was always favorable towards bitcoin and cryptos in general. So when Indian government banned banking services to crypto exchanges, the first Indian bitcoin exchange closed their operations in India and permanently moved to Singapore. This is a good news because we have seen enough bitcoin based funds that uses derivatives which actually makes no impact on the crypto market. Since this is a physical fund, I see the impact coming to the crypto market - both positive and negative. But that's what we always wanted, to have a physically settled fund management around bitcoin.

Yeah I don't know much about it myself but I'm sure it's going to end up as BitGo being their licensed, insured custodian. There really isn't anyone else as good or as insured. This doesn't really mean much for them though, it only gives them the best of what's available. My guess: Fintonia wants to be the Southeast Asian NEXO. Do OTC trading for up and coming whales, while deriving physical BTC from lenders, and paying them interest from the fees they'll charge to the buyers. Note that NEXO, via Bitgo and insurers, already have ~$350 million insurance coverage but that doesn't even cover 1% of total assets under management.