Singapore’s Monetary Authority of Singapore has added Hyperliquid to its Investor Alert List, placing the popular decentralised perpetuals exchange alongside Bybit in the city-state’s growing register of unlicensed crypto platforms.
Hyperliquid Joins Singapore’s Investor Alert List
The MAS Investor Alert List (IAL) is not a ban, but it carries real weight: it is a public registry of entities that appear to be conducting regulated financial activity in Singapore without the required licence or exemption. Being listed signals to retail investors that the platform has not been vetted by the regulator and that any disputes fall outside Singapore’s investor protection framework.
Hyperliquid — the on-chain perpetuals DEX that surged to roughly $8–10 billion in daily trading volume at its peak in early 2025 — joins Bybit, which was added to the IAL in a prior cycle. The MAS does not typically comment on the specific triggers for an IAL listing, but platforms that actively onboard Singaporean users, run local marketing campaigns, or are deemed to be soliciting business from Singapore residents without a capital markets services licence are the usual candidates.
Hyperliquid’s addition is notable because the protocol operates as a Layer-1 blockchain with its own order book, positioning itself as a decentralised alternative to centralised exchanges. Regulators appear unmoved by that framing: if Singaporean retail investors are using the platform, the MAS considers the activity potentially within its regulatory perimeter.
For context, Singapore has one of Asia’s most structured digital-asset regulatory regimes. Under the Payment Services Act (PSA), any entity providing digital payment token services to Singapore customers must hold an MAS licence. The IAL is the regulator’s public enforcement tool short of a formal prohibition order.
Indonesia Moves to Certify Crypto FinFluencers
Across the region, Indonesia’s financial regulator OJK (Otoritas Jasa Keuangan) is advancing a scheme to certify social media influencers who promote cryptocurrency products — a category now officially dubbed “FinFluencers.”
The programme would require influencers to register with OJK before endorsing or recommending crypto assets to their followers. Indonesia is one of the largest retail crypto markets in Southeast Asia, with the country’s Commodity Futures Trading Supervisory Agency (Bappebti) previously reporting millions of registered crypto investors and annual trading volumes running into tens of billions of dollars.
The FinFluencer licensing push reflects a wider anxiety among Asian regulators about influencer-driven pump-and-dump dynamics. High-profile cases across the region — from meme coin promotions that collapsed within hours to undisclosed paid endorsements — have pushed regulators toward mandatory disclosure and, now, credentialling requirements.
Under the proposed framework, certified FinFluencers would presumably need to disclose commercial relationships, avoid making specific price predictions, and carry warnings that crypto investments involve substantial risk. Penalties for unlicensed promotion have not been fully disclosed at the time of writing, but OJK has previously issued fines and public warnings against unregistered financial promoters.
What This Means for Traders
Both developments point in the same direction: Asian regulators are tightening the perimeter around crypto activity, whether at the exchange level or the influencer level.
For traders using Hyperliquid from Singapore, the IAL listing is a practical warning. The platform itself continues to operate — it is a decentralised protocol and cannot be “switched off” by the MAS — but Singaporean users have no regulatory recourse if funds are lost, disputes arise, or the protocol suffers an exploit. Hyperliquid had its own high-profile moment in March 2025, when a large leveraged position nearly drained the platform’s liquidity pool, raising questions about its risk management design.
For the broader market, the Indonesia FinFluencer scheme is a signal that regulators are moving beyond exchanges and onto distribution channels. If the certification model gains traction, it could reshape how new crypto projects reach retail audiences in one of the world’s most active emerging-market trading communities.
Traders in both jurisdictions should treat these developments as a reminder to verify whether any platform or promoter they rely on operates within a licensed framework. When regulatory clarity is absent, the risk sits entirely with the user.
