Singaporean governmental body Enterprise Singapore, along with other partners, has supported a new blockchain accelerator launched by a local venture capital firm, daily local newspaper The Straits Times writes Tuesday, Dec. 4.

Trive Ventures has launched the initiative, dubbed Tribe Accelerator, to support later-stage startups. According to the unnamed investor cited by The Straits Times, the accelerator is designed for a six-month period and will focus on the mass adoption of blockchain, decentralized applications (DApps), and back-end digital solutions that deal with blockchain.

The managers for Tribe Accelerator will initially pick eight start-ups to participate, and the launch of the program is scheduled for Q1 2019.

Apart from Enterprise Singapore — formed in April 2018 to support small and medium Singaporean enterprise development — Tribe Accelerator is reportedly backed by the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Venture Hub in Singapore and South Korean blockchain network Icon Foundation.

Singapore is known for its large-scale support of crypto-related technologies. State investment firm Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd. recently invested in enterprise blockchain software firm and global banking consortium R3 as part of a collective $107 million Series A fundraising round last May.

As well, Singapore’s Exchange Limited (SGX), along with the Monetary Authority of Singapore, has conducted a successful test of the use of blockchain technology for tokenized assets settlement in partnership with United States stock market Nasdaq.

In regard to cryptocurrencies, Singapore’s central bank finalized its regulatory framework in late November to better safeguard consumer funds, counter terrorism financing, and bolster cybersecurity. Under the new rules, the bank is able to oversee the crypto payment systems.

PwC, whose venture branch has backed the blockchain accelerator in Singapore, is also actively exploring blockchain solutions. In August, the “big four” audit giant announced the launch of its own accelerator set to train 1,000 staff in blockchain over two years.