Singapore’s crypto activity rose 55.4% to $284 billion in the year ended June 2026, allowing the city-state to regain its position as the largest crypto economy in Central and Southeast Asia and Oceania (CSAO), according to Chainalysis. Much of the increase came from institutional platform activity, which climbed 94% to $60 billion and was concentrated among a small number of market makers, over-the-counter trading firms and institutional brokerages. Chainalysis said the broader CSAO crypto economy contracted 6.8% over the same period. According to Cointelegraph, Chainalysis said Singapore’s institutional platform ecosystem growth was highly concentrated and driven mainly by high-volume activity from existing platforms rather than the entry of new services. The findings come as Singapore has been tightening crypto regulation while supporting tokenization, stablecoins and digital-asset settlement. In 2025, the Monetary Authority of Singapore required local crypto firms serving overseas clients to obtain a license or exit, a move StraitsX CEO Tianwei Liu said reduced speculative activity while leaving more institutional players, including banks and large companies, using blockchain in production. At the same time, MAS has expanded tokenization and settlement initiatives. Its BLOOM program supports trials using regulated stablecoins and tokenized bank money. On March 25, Ripple joined the initiative to test cross-border trade settlement using RLUSD.

Chainalysis also found rising small-value peer-to-peer activity in the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The three countries recorded a combined 5.4 million P2P transfers, both domestic and cross-border, worth less than $10,000 during the reporting period, representing 14.4% of the global total despite accounting for just 2.5% of the global crypto economy. More than four in five domestic P2P transfers across the three markets were below $1,000, with an average transfer size of $618, compared with $1,210 across the rest of the world. In the Philippines, the International Monetary Fund previously said authorities view crypto use as primarily driven by remittances and investment, while World Bank data show personal remittances were equivalent to 8.5% of GDP in 2025. In June, Vietnamese outlet Tuoi Tre reported that P2P trading has become an important fiat gateway because the Vietnamese dong is not widely supported in direct crypto trading pairs. In March, Reuters reported that most crypto traders in Vietnam rely on overseas exchanges, making P2P channels an important way for users to move between local bank accounts and crypto traded on those platforms. In Thailand, the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission said in September it had observed a significant increase in the volume and value of stablecoin transactions, particularly USDT.

Cross-border stablecoin use is also increasing across the region. Chainalysis said cross-border stablecoin activity exceeded domestic activity in every market it analyzed, with cross-border activity across the region 3.2 times larger than domestic activity. Chainalysis told Cointelegraph that stablecoins account for a growing share in all three markets, with adoption likely linked to ease of use, speed and low transfer costs. Thailand and Vietnam hosted sizable domestic stablecoin markets, at $10.4 billion and $6.9 billion, respectively, while cross-border stablecoin activity was significantly larger than domestic activity. In the Philippines, Nichel Gaba, CEO and founder of crypto exchange PDAX, estimated that 5% to 10% of inbound remittances are settled using stablecoins, adding that major remittance companies are pursuing stablecoin settlement initiatives in the country. In July, the Bank of the Philippine Islands revealed plans for a stablecoin settlement pilot aimed at cutting the cost and processing time of overseas payments to Filipino freelancers and remote workers.