Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand central banks expand cross-border stablecoin initiative involving Ripple, Visa and Mastercard
Malaysia and Thailand have joined Singapore's BLOOM initiative for cross-border stablecoin and tokenized deposit settlement.
The central banks of Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand have jointly expanded the BLOOM initiative, a cross-border payment framework designed to facilitate stablecoin and tokenized deposit settlement across the region. Malaysia's Bank Negara and the Bank of Thailand have formally joined Singapore's Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in the project, which also counts Ripple, Visa, and Mastercard among its key private-sector participants.
BLOOM was originally established by Singapore as part of its broader push to modernize cross-border payment infrastructure using distributed ledger technology. The initiative focuses on enabling real-time, programmable settlement between financial institutions across jurisdictions, reducing reliance on traditional correspondent banking channels that are often slower and more costly for regional transactions.
The expansion to three ASEAN nations signals growing institutional appetite for regulated digital asset infrastructure in Southeast Asia, a region where cross-border remittances and trade finance represent significant economic activity. The involvement of major payments networks alongside a blockchain-focused firm like Ripple suggests a hybrid approach, combining established financial rails with emerging tokenization technologies to serve both retail and institutional settlement needs.
Market participants will be watching whether additional ASEAN central banks move to join the initiative, as well as how regulatory frameworks across the three countries evolve to accommodate stablecoin-based settlements at scale. The development of interoperability standards between participating jurisdictions is also expected to be a key focus in the coming phases of the project.
Source: The Block
