Hiring a web3 marketing agency from Singapore, where one MAS guideline decides what the campaign may say
The Monetary Authority of Singapore published its expectation on promoting digital payment token services in PS-G02, and the text of it rules out most of what a web3 agency pitch is usually built on
Published by AI Knows Us · Updated 29 October 2026
Before you compare any web3 agency on creative, settle one question about yourself. If your company provides digital payment token services in Singapore, the Monetary Authority of Singapore has published what it expects of your marketing, and the expectation removes most of the channels a web3 agency pitch is normally built on. Guideline PS-G02, titled Guidelines on Provision of Digital Payment Token Services to the Public, issue date 17 January 2022, is listed on the MAS payments regulations and guidance page, which carried a footer note of last updated on 16 July 2026 when we read it on 29 October 2026. Paragraph 1.3 states it plainly. These Guidelines set out MAS' expectation that DPT service providers should not promote their DPT services to the general public in Singapore.
That one sentence is the shortlist filter. An agency that can talk fluently about it is a different kind of supplier from one that opens with a case study about an influencer campaign. Google Keyword Planner reports 10 searches a month in Singapore for this query, read against geo 2702 on 26 October 2026. Nothing here is legal advice, and the question of whether your company falls inside the guideline belongs with a Singapore lawyer and with MAS rather than with an agency or with this page.
What the guideline says, quoted from the document
The paragraphs below are quoted from PS-G02 as published by MAS, read on 29 October 2026. They are reproduced rather than summarised because the wording is the whole point.
Paragraph 2.1. DPT service providers should not portray the trading of DPTs in a manner that trivialises the high risks of trading in DPTs, and should not promote their DPT services in public areas in Singapore or through any other media directed at the general public in Singapore. This includes placing of any form of advertisements or promotional materials in public areas such as Singapore public transport, public transport venues, broadcast media or periodical publications, third party websites, social media platforms, public events or roadshows.
Footnote 3 to that paragraph states that periodical publications includes any newspaper and magazine. Footnote 4 gives an example, saying that for instance, there should not be promotional banners or pop-ad advertisements on social media platforms to general public or specific consumer segment in Singapore.
Paragraph 2.2. DPT service providers may promote their services on their own corporate website, mobile applications, or official social media accounts, but must not trivialise the risks of trading in DPTs in a manner that is inconsistent with or contradicts the risk disclosures under the PS Act.
Paragraph 2.3. DPT service providers should also not engage third parties, such as social media influencers or third-party websites, to promote their DPT services to the general public in Singapore. This includes joint promotional campaigns to solicit new customers.
Paragraph 3.1 extends the same logic to physical access, treating in-person access through automated teller machines in public areas as a form of promotion of DPT services to the public, and stating that DPT service providers should not provide physical ATMs in public areas in Singapore to facilitate public access to their DPT services.
Paragraph 4.2 closes the obvious workaround. DPT service providers should not promote PTDs to the public as a convenient unregulated alternative to trading in DPTs. PTDs are payment token derivatives, which paragraph 4.1 describes as derivatives contracts that reference DPTs as underlying assets, including contracts-for-differences and futures contracts.
Who the guideline is addressed to
Paragraph 1.5 sets the scope. Unless stated otherwise, these Guidelines apply to DPT service providers which have been granted a licence under the PS Act, banks and all other financial institutions providing DPT services in Singapore, as well as DPT service providers which are currently operating under the transitional exemption.
Web3 is a much wider word than DPT services. A company building developer infrastructure, a wallet that holds no customer tokens, a game studio, an identity protocol or a business to business data product sits in a different place from an exchange or a token dealing service. The practical consequence for a marketing brief is that the first meeting should produce a written answer to one question, which is whether your activity is a DPT service under the Payment Services Act. Your lawyer answers that, not your agency, and the brief is built afterwards.
What this removes from a normal web3 pitch
| The usual pitch line | What the text says about it |
|---|---|
| Influencer seeding and key opinion leader campaigns | Paragraph 2.3 addresses engaging third parties such as social media influencers to promote DPT services to the general public in Singapore |
| Paid social and display to a consumer audience here | Paragraph 2.1 lists social media platforms and third party websites, and footnote 4 gives promotional banners and pop-ad advertisements as the example |
| Out of home, transit wraps, lift screens | Paragraph 2.1 names public areas such as Singapore public transport and public transport venues |
| Press advertising and radio or television spots | Paragraph 2.1 names broadcast media and periodical publications, and footnote 3 includes any newspaper and magazine |
| Conference booths and public roadshows | Paragraph 2.1 names public events or roadshows |
| Owned channels, your own site, your own app, your official accounts | Paragraph 2.2 permits these, with the condition on how risks are portrayed |
What a good agency still has to work with
The permitted ground in paragraph 2.2 is narrow and it is real. Your own corporate website, your own mobile applications and your official social media accounts are where the work goes, which changes what you are buying. You are commissioning publishing and product communication rather than media buying, and the measures of it are different.
Three other lanes stay open and are worth naming in the scope of work. Markets outside Singapore are governed by their own rules, so a brief that serves an overseas audience is a separate plan with a separate legal review rather than the same campaign with a different budget line. Institutional and business to business communication is a different audience from the general public, and the distinction should be written into the targeting rather than assumed. Developer and technical community work, documentation, open source contribution and conference talks aimed at builders are not consumer promotion, and for most web3 companies they are where the useful audience actually is.
How to judge a shortlist
This page ranks no agency, and the reason is the point of it. The binding criterion here is regulatory fit, which is specific to your licence position and checkable per supplier, so a global ranking cannot carry it. Four questions separate the shortlist.
- Ask them to describe PS-G02 without being prompted with its number. An agency that works in this category in Singapore knows what it says about influencers.
- Ask who reviews copy before it goes out, and get a name. The answer should be a person with compliance responsibility, not the account manager.
- Ask for the market split in writing. Which assets are for Singapore, which are for other markets, and who signs off each.
- Ask what happens to the plan if your licence status changes. The scope should name the channels that switch off, not discover them later.
Platform level advertising policy is the second constraint and it sits on top of the first. The large advertising platforms restrict financial and cryptocurrency promotion with certification requirements and country by country availability, and our page on the three constraints that decide a cryptocurrency agency shortlist works through that side of it.
Questions Singapore companies ask about hiring a web3 agency
Does this mean a crypto company cannot market itself in Singapore at all
No. Paragraph 2.2 permits promotion on a provider's own corporate website, mobile applications and official social media accounts, with a condition on how the risks are portrayed. The plan moves to owned channels rather than disappearing.
Is a web3 company automatically a DPT service provider
Not automatically. Paragraph 1.5 sets the scope around licensed DPT service providers, banks and other financial institutions providing DPT services here, and providers under the transitional exemption. Whether your activity falls inside it is a legal question to put to a Singapore lawyer.
Can we run influencer campaigns for an overseas audience from Singapore
Paragraph 2.3 is written about promoting to the general public in Singapore. Other markets have their own rules, so an overseas plan is a separate brief with its own review rather than the same creative pointed elsewhere.
What should the agency contract say about this
Name the permitted channels explicitly, name who approves copy, and set out what happens to the retainer if a channel is withdrawn. A scope written as a monthly fee for marketing is not specific enough to hold anybody to in this category.
Why does this page not rank any agencies
Because the criterion that decides it here is regulatory fit against your own licence position, and that is checkable supplier by supplier rather than rankable in the abstract. The four questions above are the shortlist test.
Where is the guideline itself
It is published by MAS as PS-G02 with an issue date of 17 January 2022, and listed on the MAS payments regulations and guidance page. Read the document rather than a summary of it, including this one, before building a plan on it.
Where the first contact in this category now happens
Every paragraph above governs placing something in front of a person. A good deal of the first contact in web3 happens somewhere else, when a potential customer or counterparty asks an assistant whether a company is regulated in Singapore, what its product does, or which firms hold a licence here. The reply is assembled from pages the model has already read, and it is given whether or not anybody at the company has looked at it. Reading it first is a research step, and pulling those answers with the sources behind them is what AI Knows Us was built for.