Chinese language-language social media has been buzzing with predictions of Singapore’s decline. Posts declare that luxurious manufacturers are fleeing Marina Bay Sands, and that Orchard Street’s Christmas decorations regarded sparse this vacation season. Some mockingly name Singapore “洗钱坡” (Xǐqiánpō, “cash laundering slope”)—a sardonic play on the city-state’s Mandarin title “新加坡” (Xīnjiāpō)—forecasting the collapse of a metropolis deserted by speculative capital.
However the knowledge tells a distinct story. In accordance with Euromonitor Worldwide, Singapore’s luxurious market is projected to develop 7-9% in 2025, reaching S$13.9 billion—outpacing Japan, China, and South Korea. This isn’t a collapse. It’s restructuring. Understanding this transformation requires going again to 2019.
From Hong Kong to Singapore: The Nice Migration of 2019
When Hong Kong‘s anti-extradition invoice protests intensified in 2019, the geography of Asian finance started to shift. Individuals used to say, “The actual concern right here is that individuals are shifting their corporations and their cash in larger numbers to Singapore.”
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Again then, 23% of corporations with workplaces in Hong Kong had been contemplating relocating enterprise capabilities, with 9 out of ten selecting Singapore as their most well-liked vacation spot. When Hong Kong’s Nationwide Safety Regulation took impact in June 2020, the exodus accelerated.
Hong Kong’s strict zero-COVID insurance policies through the pandemic additional drove monetary expertise and companies towards Singapore. Property managed by Singapore’s asset administration trade doubled in simply 6 years to roughly $4 trillion, with 80% of that coming from overseas. International asset managers like BlackRock expanded their Singapore operations, whereas Ontario Academics’ Pension Plan shut down its total fairness crew in Hong Kong.
The Anti-Corruption Marketing campaign and Chinese language Capital Flight
One other engine drove capital into Singapore: Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption marketing campaign, launched after his 2012 ascension—essentially the most in depth in Chinese language Communist Social gathering historical past.
Underneath the banner of catching “tigers and flies alike,” greater than 4.7 million officers have been disciplined since 2012, together with 553 at ministerial rank or above. Operations “Sky Web” and “Fox Hunt” pursued fugitives throughout 90 international locations and recovered billions in offshore belongings.
In accordance with Germany’s Mercator Institute for China Research (MERICS), “Since 2015, the specter of capital flight has been haunting the Chinese language financial system. Confronted with the specter of forex devaluation and an aggressive anti-corruption marketing campaign, traders and savers started shifting their wealth out of China. The outflow was so giant that the central financial institution was pressured to spend greater than $1 trillion of its overseas change reserves to defend the change price.”
A lot of this cash flowed into Singapore. The town-state’s household workplaces surged from 400 in 2020 to 1,100 by the tip of 2022. The nickname “洗钱坡” (cash laundering slope) emerged from this context.
The Battle for Asia’s Crypto Hub
Cash laundering demand intersected with the cryptocurrency trade. Following China’s 2017 ICO restrictions and 2021 outright ban, main Chinese language exchanges—together with Binance, Huobi, Bybit, and OKX—relocated en masse to Singapore. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin noticed that “Singapore is turning into the middle of crypto communities.”
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Why Singapore? As a result of it was the one viable reply in Asia.
Japan had already realized painful classes. In 2014, Tokyo-based Mt. Gox—then dealing with over 70% of worldwide Bitcoin transactions—collapsed after hackers stole roughly $500 million value of Bitcoin. Japan’s Monetary Providers Company (JFSA) responded by introducing the world’s first registration system for cryptocurrency exchanges in 2016. When one other Japanese crypto change, Coincheck, misplaced $534 million in NEM tokens in January 2018, rules tightened additional.
South Korea went by way of its personal reckoning. The 2017 crypto growth introduced a flood of speculative demand, creating the infamous “kimchi premium“—the place Bitcoin costs in Korea traded considerably greater than world markets. Authorities responded with tightened rules, a stance additional strengthened by FATF’s 2019 Journey Rule suggestions requiring the sharing of buyer data for transactions above sure thresholds.
Singapore took a distinct method. Whereas it launched the Fee Providers Act (PSA) in 2019, the framework remained comparatively versatile. Overseas crypto corporations had been granted regulatory exemptions permitting them to function briefly with out licenses, supplied they didn’t serve Singapore retail traders. The trade consensus grew to become: “If you wish to do blockchain enterprise in Asia, Singapore is the place.”
Token2049, Asia’s largest blockchain convention, relocated from Hong Kong to Singapore in 2022, pushed by Hong Kong’s zero-COVID insurance policies and regulatory dangers in China. Attendance surged from 7,000 in 2022 to twenty,000 in 2024, reaching a record-breaking 25,000 in 2025.
The Turning Level: Terra-Luna, FTX, and the Fujian Gang
However 2022 marked a turning level for Singapore as effectively.
The Terra-Luna collapse in Could, the FTX chapter in November—each had Singapore connections. Singapore-headquartered Three Arrows Capital (3AC) additionally went bankrupt. In 2023 got here the $2.3 billion Fujian Gang cash laundering scandal: ten people from China’s Fujian province who had entered Singapore utilizing cast identities to launder proceeds from unlawful playing and cyber fraud.
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The Financial Authority of Singapore (MAS) shifted its stance. The Digital Token Service Supplier (DTSP) licensing regime, which took impact on June 30, 2025, requires all Singapore-based corporations serving abroad crypto prospects to acquire licenses. There was no transition interval.
Bitget and Bybit relocated employees to Dubai and Hong Kong, placing a whole bunch of Singapore-based jobs in danger. A Hong Kong politician publicly said that “Singapore corporations are welcome to relocate to Hong Kong.”
As of late 2025, round 35 corporations maintain Main Fee Establishment (MPI) licenses, together with Coinbase, Crypto.com, Circle, and Upbit.
The Luxurious Market: Who Left, Who Stayed
The crypto trade’s transformation and luxurious market restructuring share the identical underlying logic.
In accordance with Henley & Companions, millionaire inflows to Singapore dropped 54%—from 3,500 in 2024 to 1,600 in 2025. Chinese language household workplace purposes fell 50% from their 2022 peak. Non-PR overseas consumers accounted for simply 1% of personal property transactions in Q1 2024, down from 6.4% a 12 months earlier—a direct results of the Further Purchaser’s Stamp Responsibility (ABSD) hike to 60%.
However the full image differs.
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Singapore’s luxurious market grew 7-9% in 2025, in keeping with Euromonitor projections. The key lies within the city-state’s 242,400 resident millionaires. Singapore’s median family earnings has risen for 5 consecutive years. Native wealth is filling the hole left by overseas “large spenders.”
The property market tells the identical story. Overseas possession within the Core Central Area (CCR) has fallen to a 17-year low, with locals now accounting for two-thirds of prime transactions. The worth hole between CCR and different areas has narrowed to 4-6%—the smallest since 2000.
The viral declare that luxurious manufacturers fled Marina Bay Sands can be false. In July 2025, Chanel opened a 900-square-meter non permanent boutique at MBS whereas its flagship retailer undergoes renovation for a 2027 grand reopening—hardly the conduct of a model in retreat. Additionally, the 2025 Christmas season featured nightly exhibits between the Gucci and Chanel shops.
Strategic Reset, Not Collapse
What’s occurring in Singapore could also be higher understood as strategic de-risking slightly than collapse, some observers counsel.
The sample will be seen throughout sectors: a shift from overseas speculative capital to home wealth base, from unlicensed crypto operators to licensed institutional gamers, from property hypothesis to sustainable native possession. Singapore’s authorities, having absorbed the teachings of the Fujian scandal and FTX collapse, seems to have prioritized long-term stability over short-term progress.
The “Singapore collapse” narrative on Chinese language-language social media arguably amplifies detrimental alerts—such because the millionaire exodus and crypto trade departures—whereas underweighting constructive knowledge, reminiscent of luxurious gross sales progress and an increasing home wealth base.
One X consumer’s remark could come nearer to actuality: “消费转级, 不是消费降级”—consumption restructuring, not consumption decline.
Singapore, it may be stated, isn’t collapsing. It’s cleansing home.