Share this article

Singapore's National Research Foundation Invests $9M in Blockchain Innovation

The government-backed foundation is funding research and development of commercial use cases for blockchain technology.

Updated Sep 14, 2021, 10:39 a.m. Published Dec 7, 2020, 11:08 a.m.
Singapore

A Singapore government research department has launched a program intended to advance commercial applications of blockchain within the city-state.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the The Protocol Newsletter today. See all newsletters

According to a report by The Strait Times on Monday, the S$12 million (US$8.99 million) program from the National Research Foundation (NRF) will support research and development of real-world use cases for the technology.

The Singapore Blockchain Innovation Programme is expected to interact with up to 75 companies ranging from multinational corporations, large enterprises and IT firms to come up with 17 blockchain-based projects.

The initiative will see those projects established over a three-year period across sectors including trade, logistics and supply chains, The Times said.

The NRF, established in 2006, operates as a department within the Prime Minister's Office to guide Singapore's direction on research and development.

While the program is funded by the NRF, the Infocomm Media Development Authority and Enterprise Singapore (ESG), a government agency supporting businesses, also participated in the launch.

See also: Pandemic Will Speed Bitcoin Adoption, Says DBS Bank Economist

The coronavirus pandemic has underscored the importance of "trusted and reliable business systems," said ESG Chairman Peter Ong. "Blockchain technology helps to embed trust in applications spanning logistics and supply chains, trade financing to digital identities and credentials."

The business solutions developed under the program are expected to help Singapore's enterprises to be "more globally connected and competitive," he added.

More For You

Protocol Research: GoPlus Security

GP Basic Image

알아야 할 것:

  • As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
  • GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
  • Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.

More For You

Solana’s Drift Launches v3, With 10x Faster Trades

Drift (b52_Tresa/Pixabay)

With v3, the team says that about 85% of market orders will fill in under half a second, and liquidity will deepen enough to bring slippage on larger trades down to around 0.02%.

알아야 할 것:

  • Drift, one of the largest perpetuals trading platforms on Solana, has launched Drift v3, a major upgrade meant to make on-chain trading feel as fast and smooth as using a centralized exchange.
  • The new version will deliver 10-times faster trade execution thanks to a rebuilt backend, marking the largest performance jump the project has made so far.