The Singapore government-owned investment firm Temasek initiates an internal review of its $275 million investment in the collapsed FTX exchange.
While addressing the parliament meeting, Singapore Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong stated Temasek’s investment in FTX seriously harmed the company’s reputation and called the loss “disappointing.”
Wong added, “The fact that other leading global institutional investors like BlackRock and Sequoia Capital also invested in FTX does not mitigate this.”
Temasek said a month ago that it would reduce the value of its whole investment in FTX because of the market collapse. Temasek’s entire investment in FTX International and FTX US amounted to $210 million and $75 million respectively, representing a total of 0.09% of the company’s net portfolio worth of $293 billion.
According to Wong, Temasek has subsequently initiated an internal evaluation of its investment that is being carried out by an independent committee in order to enhance its procedures and gain knowledge from the experience.
In the past, appraisals of this kind have been carried out, and according to Wong, the government is not ruling out the possibility of taking the current study one step further by bringing in auditors from the outside.
Temasek said that it had carried out “extensive due diligence” on FTX during the months of February and October 2021, and that the company’s audited financial statement at that time “showed that it was profitable.”
When asked about the requirements that needed to be met before the nation’s auditor-general is instructed to intervene, Wong responded that it would take meeting a significant threshold that encompassed not only investment losses but also signs of negligence and misconduct. This was in response to the question regarding the criteria that needed to be reached before the nation’s auditor-general is instructed to intervene.
According to Wong, the individual loss did not have any impact on the returns of Singapore’s reserves, which are calculated based on long-term returns. Tensek is a privately operated business, despite the fact that it is owned by the government.
Wong highlighted that Singapore’s only goal is to be a responsible and creative member in the digital asset market, and that the country does not want to become a center for cryptocurrency activities.
Wong claims that blockchain technology may still be put to use in specific applications, and the central bank is now investigating the possibility of implementing pilot projects for the financial sector.
Wong added, “Those who trade in cryptocurrencies must be prepared to lose all their value. No amount of regulation can remove this risk.”
Compiled by Coinbold
