Speculative cryptocurrency investors are negatively impacting on experimentation with the nascent technology, an executive at Singapore's central bank said Monday.
Sopnendu Mohanty, chief fintech officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), told CNBC that he did not want speculative investing in the digital currency space to "destroy the experimental value of cryptocurrency."
MAS is currently working on its own blockchain, or distributed ledger technology, project called "Project Ubin," and expects to complete a trial with a digital version of the Singapore dollar this year. Blockchain, the technology that underpins virtual currencies, maintains a continually growing record of transactions across a decentralized network.
Voicing his concerns about speculators in the market, Mohanty said: "That's a key part because we are going to continue to experiment on this fabulous technology and find the use case, hopefully, in the long run.
"But the speculators and the people who are making money out of this speculation of the cryptocurrency (market) are perhaps negatively impacting the whole experimentation of cryptocurrency."
A number of established banking giants, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi and Credit Suisse, are involved in MAS' blockchain project.
Concerns over speculative trading, extreme volatility and illicit activities in the cryptocurrency space have led regulators to step up pressure on the market.
Last month, South Korea introduced measures to tackle speculation in the sector, banning the use of anonymous bank accounts in cryptocurrency trading. This followed fears of a more far-reaching clampdown due to comments from government officials that suggested the country would move to ban cryptocurrency trading via exchanges.