Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has triggered backlash from Singaporean lawmakers, with the nation’s prime minister and current ruling party in a difficult situation, news reports revealed on Monday.
The current leadership, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, are expected to receive massive scrutiny from lawmakers over allegations they failed to protect investors.
According to a report from Singapore’s Channel News Asia, parliamentarians from the Workers’ Party, the main opposition party, demanded answers from the ruling coalition regarding investment firm Temasek.
The group of members of parliament (MPs) grilled the government on its competence and oversight of the investments from Temasek and GIC, the nation’s sovereign wealth fund.
Singapore’s Workers’ Party has proposed further inquiries and discussions via a bipartisan committee tasked with interrogating Temasek on investments the company made amid the FTX crisis.
FTX Crypto Collapse Triggers Regulators
The news comes after the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX platform, following a massive liquidity crisis that triggered a major bank run on the platform’s native token, FTT.
According to reports, Temasek did not find any faults in FTX as it invested millions in the platform and, among 69 investors, helped raised $420 million in funds for the latter company in October last year.
Temasek invested roughly $210 million in FTX and a further $65 million in FTX.US, the exchange’s subsidy firm. Following the collapse, the Singaporean investment company wrote off $275 million in investments as a complete loss, or the entirety of its contributions to the disgraced crypto platform.
Sequoia Capital has also written off its $214 million in investments in FTX, with the cryptocurrency market remaining in turmoil and several companies facing further setbacks due to the aftermath. Governments worldwide have also demanded further regulatory oversight of the cryptocurrency market due to the FTX crash, including the Australian Treasury, Singapore’s Monetary Authority (MAS), and many others.
