| At a time when crypto companies are finding a friend in President Donald Trump and setting their sights on the US, one market maker is bucking the trend. Acheron Trading, which also has offices in Florida, Belgium and Hong Kong, is focusing on Singapore as its "growth hub," according to Jonathan Yark, a senior quant trader at the firm. "We are expanding rapidly in prioritizing Singapore and bringing everything into a centralized fashion," Yark said in an interview, adding that the firm's global headquarter is in the city state and it has applied for a digital payments token license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Acheron Trading's contrarian move speaks to the relevance of Singapore as a digital-asset hub, despite a newfound interest in the US due to the pro-crypto Trump administration. Other leading market makers including GSR Markets, Wintermute and B2C2 have set up offices in the city state. Regulatory clarity and the pace at which it's dishing out crypto licenses are some of the perceived advantages in Singapore. The city state has given out 30 crypto licenses since 2021. That includes 13 in 2024, more than double the amount awarded the previous year. In comparison, its rival Hong Kong's awarded nine licenses, of which seven were from October through January. GSR has received a license in Singapore, a rare one for a market maker, while B2C2 has applied for one. A Singapore license is seen as a stamp of approval for companies when they apply for one in other countries. Acheron, which focuses on market making in the top 100 tokens by market value including memecoins, plans to increase its headcount to 50 from about 27. Twenty employees will be in Singapore, Yark said, after the shift to the city state from the US in November. "When the US does turn on, it can also have that rapid expansion," Yark said. "But we see Singapore as the ideal standard for when we do bring out those new offices in the US, across Europe and across Asia as well." | 
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