Singapore government-owned funding agency Temasek has suffered much more than simply monetary losses attributable to investing in FTX, in response to Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.
Wong, who can also be the finance minister, believes that Temasek’s $275 million funding in FTX has precipitated important harm to the corporate’s repute. The official addressed the rising criticism over Temasek’s FTX publicity at a parliament assembly on Nov. 27, in response to a report by the South China Morning Publish.
The prime minister emphasised that the collapse of FTX was a results of a “very badly managed firm” in addition to attainable fraud and misappropriation of consumer funds.
“What occurred with FTX, due to this fact, has precipitated not solely monetary loss to Temasek but in addition reputational harm,” the official stated, including that Temasek has launched an inner funding assessment to enhance processes and draw classes for the longer term.
Wong careworn that investments by different main institutional traders like BlackRock and Sequoia Capital don’t mitigate that reputational harm.
Temasek, which is totally owned by the minister for finance however operates independently, stated on Nov. 17 that it wrote down its complete $275 million FTX funding. The quantity accounted for simply 0.09% of Temasek’s $403 billion portfolio as of March 2022. In response to Wong, FTX-related losses wouldn’t have an effect on traders’ contribution to the online funding returns contribution, which is the quantity of the federal government income coming from curiosity earned on its reserves.
Aside from addressing considerations round FTX and Temasek, Wong additionally argued that Singapore had no ambitions to change into a crypto hub however reasonably seeks to be a “accountable and revolutionary digital asset participant.”
“A number of the earlier optimism about blockchain applied sciences has been confirmed to be […] not well-placed. I believe there’s a extra real looking sense of what these applied sciences can do,” Wong said. He additionally emphasised that crypto traders should be ready to lose all their investments on crypto, including: “No quantity of regulation can take away this threat.”
Associated: FTX collapse put the Singapore authorities in a parliamentary scorching seat
Regardless of Temasek writing down its funding in FTX, the state-owned firm apparently nonetheless holds investments in lots of different trade platforms. Regardless of circuitously investing in crypto, Temasek is understood for taking part in a number of funding rounds for large crypto firms, together with Binance and Amber Group.
In August, Temasek additionally reportedly led a $110 million strategic funding spherical for the main metaverse and blockchain gaming firm Animoca Manufacturers.
Temasek didn’t instantly reply to Cointelegraph’s request for remark.
