🌏 Malaysia and Thailand’s central banks join Singapore’s BLOOM: Southeast Asia’s stablecoin settlements are starting to “standardize”
On October 23, Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand joined BLOOM, a program launched by the Monetary Authority of Singapore last October, as policymaker members.
This isn’t about “central banks buying crypto.” It’s about something more fundamental:
🔹 The goal is to standardize cross-border settlement for regulated stablecoins and tokenized deposits
🔹 The focus is on wholesale use cases, such as trade finance, cross-border corporate payments, and fund transfers
🔹 A news roundup on X mentioned participants including DBS, JPMorgan, Visa, and Circle. They’re also exploring how to build compliance requirements directly into programmable payments
Why is this worth watching? For businesses operating across Southeast Asia, it’s routine for a payment to pass through several correspondent banks, take days to arrive, and incur fees at every step. For many small and medium-sized businesses, that’s just the way things are. Three central banks sitting down together to discuss the rules is far more substantive than an individual project promising “instant settlement.”
My take: This won’t make much immediate difference to ordinary people, and it’s not a bullish signal for any particular coin. The real question comes later: once the standards are in place, which stablecoins will be eligible? Will it be tokenized deposits issued by banks, or will private stablecoins like USDC be allowed in too? That will determine where the money ultimately flows.
One more warning: whenever news about “central bank cooperation” comes out, someone will use the name to promote a so-called “official Southeast Asian stablecoin.” None of the three central banks has issued a coin. Block anyone making that claim.
Have you ever made a cross-border transfer in Southeast Asia? What’s the biggest headache: slow arrival, fees, or exchange rates?
#稳定币 #东南亚 #跨境支付 #BLOOM