The Monetary Authority of Singapore says it will not regulate Bitcoin adoption, according to Bitcoin news provider CoinDesk. "Whether or not businesses accept Bitcoins in exchange for their goods and services is a commercial decision in which the MAS does not intervene," the MAS, Singapore's central bank, told Singapore-based Bitcoin trading platform Coin Republic, CoinDesk reports.

Singapore joins Germany and Japan in choosing not to regulate Bitcoin, contrasting with China, whose financial services regulator, the People's Bank of China, has banned Chinese banks from Bitcoin transactions. The PBoC subsequently ruled that third-party payment providers such as PayPal and Alipay could not deal in Bitcoin.

On Dec. 16, Shanghai-based BTC China, the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, announced that it could no longer accept Renminbi deposits, following the PBoC's ban on Bitcoin transactions by third-party processors, sending Bitcoin's price into freefall, the South China Morning Post reported.

Although the MAS has decided not to regulate Bitcoin, in September it issued a warning about the risks of trading in the crypto-currency. "If Bitcoin ceases to operate, there may not be an identifiable party responsible for refunding their monies or for them to seek recourse," International Business Times quoted an MAS spokesperson as saying.

Bitcoin was trading at US$646 on Dec. 23, down from $1,147 on Dec. 4. On Dec. 23, 2012, Bitcoin traded at just $13, according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin price index.

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