Stablecoins are going local, and Asia is leading the move. Non-dollar stablecoins pegged to currencies such as the yen and Singapore dollar have grown about fivefold to $64.4 million since the start of last year, while Asia-Pacific now handles 51.2% of global stablecoin payment value, CoinDesk Research said in a new report carried by the Seoul Economic Daily.
The scale is already serious. CoinDesk's corridor data captured 426 Asia-linked payment routes across 28 countries worth $30.9 billion and 14.2 million transactions, concentrated around Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, India and Australia, Tatum reported. Even Tether's grip is slipping: USDT's share of regional liquidity fell from 98% at the start of 2025 to 91% in July 2026.
Related reading: BlackRock says AI agents will run on stablecoins; Circle lets institutions borrow USDC against bitcoin.
Why Asia, why now
CoinDesk points to three drivers: fragmented currencies across the region, the sheer size of intra-Asian trade, and mature fintech plus real-time payment systems that make digital settlement feel normal. Business payments lead the way at 37.1% of volume, mostly invoices and treasury flows, not retail speculation.
That last point matters. Stablecoins in Asia are becoming plumbing for exporters and importers who want 24/7 cross-border settlement that domestic bank rails cannot offer, especially across weekends and holidays.
Coexistence, not a single winner
The report's forecast is plural: dollar and local-currency stablecoins, tokenized deposits, central bank digital currencies and bank-led payment networks will coexist rather than converge on one currency or network. The next phase, CoinDesk argues, will be decided by regulatory access, custody, reserves and bank integration, not just liquidity.
Early evidence fits. Compliance-first issuers are winning distribution inside regulated systems such as Japan, while Washington's GENIUS Act framework pushes the whole market toward full reserve backing and clearer redemption rules.
What it means for Malaysia
Malaysia sits in the middle of this story. Millions of Indonesian and Bangladeshi workers remit wages home through corridors like the Taiwan-to-Indonesia route the report flags as a top flow, and every ringgit saved on fees matters with the currency near 4.09 per dollar. TNG and GrabPay have already trained consumers to live on real-time rails.
Bank Negara has spent years testing cross-border digital settlement through BIS-led experiments, so the policy groundwork exists. The open question is whether a ringgit stablecoin joins the mix and gives local SMEs the same weekend-proof settlement Asian exporters are adopting now.
What to watch next
- Local-currency launches: yen, Singapore dollar and won pegs are the template to copy
- USDT's share: a slide below 90% confirms the diversification trend
- B2B pilots: invoice and treasury flows decide real adoption, not trading volumes
- Malaysia's move: any ringgit token or bank pilot puts MY exporters on the map