Crypto in Raffles Place, Tanjong Pagar and Telok Ayer

Where Singapore’s crypto industry works

Walk from Raffles Place MRT down Robinson Road to Shenton Way and you pass the registered offices of a remarkable share of Singapore’s licensed crypto industry. We went through the MAS Financial Institutions Directory on 20 October 2026: of the 38 Major Payment Institutions licensed for digital payment token services, 19 give an address in the CBD postcodes around Raffles Place, Cecil Street, Robinson Road, Shenton Way and Telok Ayer, and another six are a few minutes away in Marina Bay. The regulator itself is at 10 Shenton Way, by Tanjong Pagar.

A few of the names you may know, with the addresses as MAS lists them:

Independent Reserve is the most recent visible arrival. It opened a new office in the CBD on 5 December 2024, describing it as the base for its Singapore operations and its expansion in Asia. The rest of the list is a mix of retail apps, custodians such as BitGo and Anchorage, and trading firms that only deal with institutions. You can check any of them yourself in our list of MAS-licensed exchanges.

Boat Quay and Boon Tat Street: where Singapore’s first ATMs stood

The CBD is also where Singapore’s Bitcoin ATM story began. In late February 2014, days after Mt. Gox collapsed in Tokyo, Tembusu Terminals installed a buy-only machine at The Spiffy Dapper, a bar on Boat Quay overlooking the Singapore River. It charged a 5% fee and printed a QR code for your wallet. A month later, on 25 March 2014, Coin Republic and Bitcoiniacs put a two-way Robocoin machine into Bartini Kitchen at 29 Boon Tat Street, a short walk from Telok Ayer, and it let users sell Bitcoin for cash as well.

• Feb 2014Tembusu Terminals machine at The Spiffy Dapper, Boat Quay. Buy only, 5% fee.
• Mar 2014Robocoin two-way machine at Bartini Kitchen, Boon Tat Street.
• 2014–2021A handful of machines move into malls around the island. Exact locations by mall are poorly documented.
• Jan 2022MAS guidelines bar public marketing through physical ATMs. Operators switch every machine off within days.
• Dec 2024Independent Reserve opens a new CBD office, an office rather than a counter.

Neither bar machine lasted, and nothing replaced them after 2022. If a website or map pin today shows a “Bitcoin ATM Raffles Place”, it is either out of date or not what it claims to be. The full history is in our Bitcoin ATM guide.

Why an office visit is not a way to buy

It is tempting to think that if Coinbase’s office is in the tower next to yours, you could pop up with your NRIC and buy in person. You cannot, and it is not a matter of politeness. Licensed platforms onboard customers through their apps, where identity checks, the risk awareness assessment that MAS requires, and anti-money-laundering screening all happen in one recorded flow. There is no cash desk, and staff will not accept transfers or give out deposit details face to face.

That is also why a person who says they “work at an exchange” and offers to buy coins on your behalf, at their office or anywhere else, should set off alarms. Genuine employees have no reason to handle your money. If you need help, use the in-app support channel, or email the company from the address on its official site.

OTC desks for professionals and larger trades

Where the CBD does have something extra is size. If you are moving a bonus, the proceeds of a property sale or treasury funds for a company, an OTC desk gives you a single quoted price instead of pushing a large order through an exchange order book.

Independent Reserve’s Singapore OTC desk starts at around 50,000 and handles trades into the tens of millions, settled within hours by PayNow, FAST or in USD, HKD and EUR. StraitsX runs a stablecoin desk from about US$100,000. Coinhako has offered OTC since 2019, with a minimum it has published at around US$250,000, though that may be out of date. Firms such as QCP Trading, GSR, Cumberland and HashKey deal with institutions rather than individuals. None of them settles in cash. Everything moves by bank transfer, and you will be asked where the money came from.

The calculator shows roughly what slippage on an exchange might cost compared with an OTC quote. For anything under the desk minimums, a limit order on a low-fee exchange usually works fine. Our OTC guide covers how quotes, KYC and settlement work in detail.

Buying on a lunch break: the CBD worker’s routine

Most people in the CBD are not buying six figures. They are buying a few hundred dollars between a kopi at Amoy Street Food Centre and a 2pm meeting. That works well in Singapore, because PayNow deposits land in minutes. The trick is to do the slow part once, at home.

1. Set up the account in the evening

   Sign up with Singpass and MyInfo, complete the risk awareness assessment and switch on an authenticator app. This is the part that takes time, so do not start it in a lift lobby.

2. Save the platform as a PayNow payee

   Most licensed apps show a PayNow QR or a unique reference. Do a small first deposit so the payee is saved in your banking app and you have seen the funds arrive.

3. At lunch, deposit and place a limit order

   Send the amount by PayNow, then place a limit order close to the market price. It takes two minutes and avoids the wider spread of instant-buy buttons.

4. Close the app, not the browser tab on your work laptop

   Use your own phone. Logging in to an exchange on a shared or company device risks saved passwords and breaches of your IT policy.

If you are deciding where to open that account, compare platforms in our exchange table and see which accept PayNow in our PayNow guide.

Meetups and events within walking distance

Because the industry works here, the community gathers here too, mostly after office hours. Side events during TOKEN2049 week each October spill over from Marina Bay into rooftop bars and offices around Raffles Place. The community-run Bitcoin Walk SG meets at Marina Bay Financial Centre, and in May 2026 a Bitcoin Pizza Party was held at SQ Collective on Mohamed Sultan Road, a short way up the river. Our Marina Bay guide covers the conference season and its scams in more detail.

Meetups are good for learning, not for trading. Be wary of anyone at an event who offers to swap coins for cash or PayNow transfers there and then.

Scams aimed at office workers

The SPF counted S$182.2 million lost to crypto in scams in 2025, about one fifth of all scam losses. CBD workers are a target because they have salaries, busy days and a habit of approving things quickly. The patterns we see most often here:

• The colleague’s tip. A message in a LinkedIn chat or WhatsApp group from a “senior trader” offering a private signals group. The platform they recommend is fake.
• The boss on WhatsApp. Someone impersonating a director asks you to buy USDT urgently for a deal. Call the person on a number you already know.
• The task job. Paid “part-time tasks” that end with you topping up a crypto balance to unlock your earnings.
• The fake OTC desk. A polished site offering better-than-market rates on large trades. Check every name on the MAS directory and the Investor Alert List.

Other areas

The CBD is about offices and size. If you live in the heartlands, the pages for your own area may fit better.