The crypto bros are back: ‘The hubris never really left’

The Straits Times looked at the return of crypto’s loudest voices to Singapore, and at how much of the old excess has actually gone. Nearly all the insiders it spoke to wanted to play down the sector’s links to yachts, nightclubs and jet-setting, and to talk instead about how it has grown up since 2017.

Dr. Loretta Chen, 48, founder and chief executive of Smobler, reads the excess as a symptom of the sector’s youth. “When this whole notion of cryptocurrency was unleashed, it was the younger generation and digitally savvy that embraced it,” she told the paper. “With this sudden flush of cash, when you’re young, you will say, ‘Wow, let’s go throw a party’, right?” The piece draws the obvious comparison with 1980s Wall Street, before regulation began to instil discipline.

Chen is optimistic about Singapore specifically, arguing it is a natural hub for intelligent people and high-net-worth individuals because of its reputation for safety and its regulatory frameworks. She notes that Vitalik Buterin visits the country without a security entourage and uses public transport — something not possible in other crypto hubs.

Being based there also produces a different kind of company. Smobler, she says, stays away from the short-term profit of memecoins and has diversified into AI and virtual reality; a long-term orientation is what working closely with financial institutions and regulators requires.

The wider article charts the arrival of the suits. Coinbase’s Singapore country director reports a record number of applicants after years in which regulatory uncertainty weighed on job seekers as much as on capital; OKX Singapore received three times as many applications in the first half of 2025 as in the same period of 2024, and not only from Web3 natives.