MAS has added Hyperliquid to the "grey list": what this means for Singapore's DeFi sector
On June 26, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) officially added the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid and the website of its governing organization, the Hyper Foundation, to its Investor Alert List (IAL). This action signals increased regulatory scrutiny of platforms operating in jurisdictional gray areas.
The IAL is not a blacklist or a ban on operations. It is a warning tool: it includes services that users might mistakenly perceive as holding an MAS license. In effect, it is a way to protect investors from misunderstanding a platform's status.
The Hyperliquid team responded promptly to this event, emphasizing that inclusion in the IAL is not a sanction or an admission of wrongdoing. In their statement, the developers noted that Hyperliquid is a public infrastructure that does not have, and has never claimed to have, a license from MAS. "Users hold their own assets, and transactions are processed transparently," they added.
Notably, since the beginning of summer, major centralized exchanges such as KuCoin and Bitget have also been added to this list. This indicates a consistent policy by the MAS to tighten control over all forms of crypto services, regardless of their architecture.
As a reminder, as early as June 2025, the regulator mandated that all crypto companies obtain a license as a digital token service provider. Otherwise, they face the termination of services for foreign clients. Hyperliquid, as an unlicensed DeFi platform, formally falls under this risk, although its decentralized nature creates legal conflicts.
My analysis: The inclusion of Hyperliquid in the IAL is more of a political gesture than a practical threat to the protocol. DeFi platforms operating on smart contracts and lacking a single legal entity are extremely difficult to regulate using traditional methods. However, for users in Singapore and investors focused on the Asian market, this is a signal to exercise increased caution. Regulators worldwide are increasingly attempting to stretch the "net" of traditional licensing over decentralized networks, and this precedent is just the beginning of a long legal struggle.