Malaysia and Thailand Join Singapore's Cross-Border Stablecoin Project

Three Southeast Asian central banks are now working together on how digital money can move between their countries.

What was announced

The Monetary Authority of Singapore said Friday that Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand have joined its BLOOM initiative as policymaker members, The Business Times reported. BLOOM, launched by Singapore last October, brings together regulators, banks, payment networks and technology firms to explore cross-border use of regulated stablecoins and tokenized bank deposits.

The group will focus on three areas: how digital money is accepted and settled across borders, how different digital money systems can work together, and built-in safeguards such as identity checks, sanctions screening and transaction controls.

"As financial institutions and jurisdictions develop different digital money use cases, including for tokenised deposits and regulated stablecoins, greater coordination will be important to support its effective use across borders," MAS said, according to The Business Times.

Who is involved

Industry participants include DBS, OCBC, UOB, Standard Chartered, JPMorgan, Coinbase, Circle and StraitsX, along with later additions such as Visa, Mastercard, Ripple, Maybank, Airwallex and the World Bank Group. Ripple said in March it would test trade payments using its RLUSD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger through the program, The Block reported.

Why it matters

Central bank backing gives regulated stablecoins a clearer path into everyday cross-border finance in a fast-growing region. For issuers like Circle and Ripple, it could open new payment corridors under official oversight.