Since the Federal Reserve started raising rates in 2022, the Singapore dollar has gained against major currencies, ‘confirming its role as the “Swiss franc of Asia”’, as one commentator put it.

As CNBC Market Correspondent Lim Hui Jie reports, analysts point to Singapore’s resilient economy, robust institutions and prudent policy framework. At the same time, SGD lacks the trading volume of traditional safe-haven currencies like JPY or CHF. And given that Singapore authorities are wary of allowing the currency to appreciate to steeply, the currency is not an obvious choice for traders looking to speculate (though could play an increasingly important role in managing risk).

New standards

Meanwhile, a new kind of safe haven is emerging in the crypto space. Stablecoins, digital assets pegged to fiat currencies, offered stability amid the crypto volatility of tariff-related market turmoil.

But what if stablecoins weren’t just tethered to dollars or euros? What else could they be anchored to? That’s not a purely hypothetical question. Arguably, stablecoins could force us to reconsider what counts as currency.

Crypto is often conceptualised as a kind of ‘digital gold’. But what if, in an irony of history, the emergence of stablecoins introduces a new form of gold standard, where digital assets hold their value not though their intrinsic scarcity but because of their backing by physical assets, whether gold, Treasuries, or a commodity suited to our digital age (lithium?).

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