After the FTX nightmare, Singapore's Temasek will be cautious in the crypto space

Temasek wrote out its entire investment in FTX in November.

One of Singapore's sovereign wealth funds, Temasek Holdings, has committed to take "collective accountability" for its failed $275 million investment in defunct crypto exchange FTX.

The fund claimed in a statement issued Monday morning that there was "fraudulent conduct intentionally hidden from investors, including Temasek."

"Although there was no misconduct by the investment team in reaching their investment recommendation, the investment team and senior management, who are ultimately responsible for investment decisions made, took collective accountability and had their compensation reduced," Temasek Chairman Lim Boon Heng said in a statement posted to its website.

Days after FTX went bankrupt in November, the fund announced that it had written down the entirety of its stake. Temasek stated in November that the $210 million investment, which accounted for 1% of FTX International and $65 million for 1.5% of FTX.US, constituted 0.09% of the firm's net portfolio value of $293.5 billion (SGD 403 billion) from the previous year.

Temasek claimed at the time that it spent eight months on FTX due diligence, studying its audited financial statements, analysing regulatory risk, and cyber security threats.

Temasek stated that it aims to refine its investment appraisal system following FTX, particularly for quickly rising enterprises.

Temasek underlined that it does not intend to invest in cryptocurrencies and that it will be careful when assessing new blockchain projects.

Temasek's sole investment in a cryptocurrency exchange was FTX.

FTX was accessible to users in Singapore during its peak, while Binance, its main rival, was blocked.

Binance was listed to the Investor Alert List by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in September 2021, however no action was taken on Binance. MAS later stated that this was due to Binance directly soliciting Singaporean customers and offering trading in Singapore dollars, which FTX did not.

By fLEXI tEAM