Chinese social media has been filled with predictions about Singapore's decline. Posts claim that luxury brands are leaving Marina Bay Sands and that Orchard Road's Christmas decorations looked sparse this year. Some refer to Singapore as “洗钱坡” (Xǐqiánpō, “money laundering slope”)—a sarcastic wordplay on the country's Chinese name “新加坡” (Xīnjiāpō)—and claim that speculative capital has left the city.
But the numbers tell a different story. According to Euromonitor International, Singapore's luxury market is expected to grow by 7-9% in 2025, reaching 13.9 billion SGD—faster than Japan, China, and South Korea. This is not a collapse. It is a restructuring. To understand the change, we must go back to 2019.
From Hong Kong to Singapore: The Great Migration 2019
As Hong Kong's protests against the extradition law worsened in 2019, Asia's financial geography began to change. Many said at the time: “The real problem is that people are moving their businesses and money to Singapore.”
At that time, 23% of companies with offices in Hong Kong considered relocating operations, and nine out of ten preferred Singapore. When Hong Kong's security law came into effect in June 2020, the exodus accelerated.
Hong Kong's strict zero-COVID regulations during the pandemic also drove finance professionals and companies toward Singapore. Assets managed by Singapore's asset managers doubled in just 6 years to approximately 4 trillion USD, with 80% coming from abroad. Global players like BlackRock grew in Singapore while Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan closed down its entire equity team in Hong Kong.
The anti-corruption campaign and Chinese capital flight
Another factor for capital inflow was Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign, which started after he became leader in 2012—the largest in the history of China's Communist Party.
Under the slogan of capturing both “tigers and flies,” over 4.7 million officials have been punished since 2012, among them 553 ministers or higher positions. The operations “Sky Net” and “Fox Hunt” chased refugees in 90 countries and returned billions in assets from abroad.
According to Germany's Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS), “capital flight has haunted China's economy since 2015. As the threat of currency depreciation and the anti-corruption campaign intensified, investors began to move their money out. The outflow was so large that the central bank had to use more than 1 trillion USD of its foreign exchange reserves to defend the exchange rate.”
A large portion of this money ended up in Singapore. The number of family offices in the city increased from 400 in 2020 to 1,100 by the end of 2022. The nickname “洗钱坡” (money laundering slope) arose due to this.
The battle for Asia's crypto hub
The need for money laundering met the cryptocurrency industry. After China's regulations against ICOs in 2017 and a total ban in 2021, major Chinese cryptocurrency exchanges—such as Binance, Huobi, Bybit, and OKX—moved to Singapore. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin said that “Singapore is becoming the hub for crypto communities.”
Why Singapore? Because it was the only possible choice in Asia.
Japan had already learned the hard way. In 2014, Tokyo-based Mt. Gox—then over 70% of the world's bitcoin trading—collapsed after hackers stole bitcoin worth approximately 500 million USD. Japan's financial regulator created the world's first registration system for cryptocurrency exchanges in 2016. When Coincheck lost 534 million USD in NEM tokens in 2018, regulations tightened even further.
South Korea also had to rethink. The crypto boom in 2017 led to significant speculation and created the notorious “kimchi premium” where bitcoin prices in Korea were much higher than on global markets. Authorities responded with new strict regulations, which became stronger when the FATF's Travel Rule in 2019 required sharing customer data for larger transactions.
Singapore chose a different path. With the Payment Services Act 2019, it laid the groundwork, but the rules remained flexible. Foreign companies were given temporary exemptions to operate without a license if they did not target ordinary investors in Singapore. The industry was unanimous: “If you want to run blockchain businesses in Asia, Singapore is the right place.”
Token2049, Asia's largest blockchain conference, moved from Hong Kong to Singapore in 2022 due to Hong Kong's zero-COVID regulations and regulatory risks in China. The number of visitors rose from 7,000 in 2022 to 20,000 in 2024 and a record 25,000 in 2025.
Turning point: Terra-Luna, FTX, and the Fujian gang
However, 2022 still became a turning point for Singapore.
The Terra-Luna crash in May and FTX's bankruptcy in November both had ties to Singapore. The company Three Arrows Capital (3AC) from Singapore also went bankrupt. In 2023, a major money laundering scandal occurred involving the Fujian gang. Ten individuals from Fujian province in China entered Singapore with false identities to launder money from illegal gambling and online fraud.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) changed its stance. The regulations for Digital Token Service Providers (DTSP) began to apply on June 30, 2025. All companies in Singapore with customers abroad must now have a license. The transition period has been abolished.
Bitget and Bybit moved staff to Dubai and Hong Kong. This puts hundreds of jobs in Singapore at risk. A politician from Hong Kong publicly stated that “Singapore's companies are welcome to move to Hong Kong.”
By the end of 2025, around 35 companies had Major Payment Institution (MPI) licenses. Some examples include Coinbase, Crypto.com, Circle, and Upbit.
The luxury market: Who left, who stayed
The transformation of the crypto industry and the restructuring of the luxury market share the same fundamental logic.
According to Henley & Partners, the influx of millionaires to Singapore decreased by 54%. The number fell from 3,500 in 2024 to 1,600 in 2025. Applications from Chinese family offices dropped by 50% compared to the peak in 2022. Foreign buyers without permanent residency accounted for only 1% of home purchases in the first quarter of 2024. A year earlier, the share was 6.4%. The decline was due to the Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) being raised to 60%.
But the picture has more sides.
Singapore's luxury market grew by 7–9% in 2025, according to forecasts from Euromonitor. The secret lies in the city's 242,400 resident millionaires. Singapore's median income has risen for five consecutive years. Local wealth now fills the gap left by foreign big spenders.
The housing market shows the same pattern. Foreign ownership in the Core Central Region (CCR) is at the lowest level in 17 years. Now locals account for two-thirds of the largest transactions. The price difference between CCR and other areas has decreased to 4–6%—the lowest difference since the year 2000.
The claim that luxury brands are leaving Marina Bay Sands is not true. In July 2025, Chanel opened a temporary store of 900 square meters at MBS. Their flagship store is currently being renovated in preparation for a reopening in 2027. This does not indicate that the brand is leaving the area. During the Christmas shopping season of 2025, the area had shows every evening between the Gucci and Chanel stores.
Strategic restart, not collapse
Some say Singapore's change is a deliberate strategy to reduce risks, not a sign of collapse.
We can see the same pattern across different industries. Singapore's economy is transitioning from foreign speculators to local wealth. The crypto industry is shifting from unlicensed players to regulated firms. The real estate market is moving from speculation to more sustainable ownership by locals. After the Fujian scandal and the FTX crash, the government aims for long-term stability instead of rapid growth.
On social media in Chinese, the idea of a “collapsing Singapore” is spreading. They highlight negative signals such as millionaires and crypto companies leaving the country. But they downplay positive figures such as increased luxury sales and growing domestic wealth.
A user on X pointed out: “消费转级, 不是消费降级”—consumption is changing, it is not declining.
So it can be said: Singapore is not collapsing. The country is cleaning up.