Money Moves East: Asia’s Stablecoin Corridors 2026

A new report titled “Money Moves East” documents licensed stablecoin developments across the Asia-Pacific region in the 12 months to September 2026. Regulators in Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore introduced major legal and operational steps to integrate regulated stablecoins into payments and settlement systems.

Hong Kong enacted a Stablecoins Ordinance and issued the first two local stablecoin issuer licences under the new regime. Japan advanced a regulatory structure described as a three-lane approach and a trust-bank anchored yen stablecoin entered live issuance. Taiwan passed a Virtual Asset Service Act to set clearer legal rules for virtual-asset firms. Singapore published draft legislation intended to convert its Monetary Authority guidelines into statute.

The report cites regional payment flows and market activity as drivers. APAC’s outbound cross-border payments reached $13.5 trillion in 2025. The region accounts for roughly 60% of global genuine stablecoin payment volume, according to the document. The authors map where licensed issuance and settlement arrangements are being built and where commercial use is already occurring.

Five infrastructure firms contributed first-party data on technical links between bank settlement and tokenised money. Capital Layer provided data on bank connectivity and trade settlement integrations. Movantis supplied findings on hybrid fiat-plus-stablecoin remittances. Reap reported on corporate card flows funded by stablecoins. STABO shared information on clearing and collections, and Triple-A contributed merchant acceptance metrics. The report also includes material from AUDC, issuer of AUDD under an Australian licence, and Green Link Digital Bank, a Singapore-licensed wholesale bank working on tokenised settlement and supply-chain finance.

Industry participants described licensing as a prerequisite for wider institutional use but noted operational work remains. Justin Wang, CEO of Capital Layer, noted, “Licensing opens the door, but operations decide who walks through it.” Gustavo Ruiz, chairman and CEO of Movantis, added, “Reaching a payout location is easy to claim. Reaching it with regulated settlement on both ends is not.” Anna Chiu of Reap commented on compliance tooling, and Arnoud Star Busmann, advisor to STABO, said stablecoins in B2B have moved beyond proof of concept. Eric Barbier, CEO of Triple-A, observed that businesses are selecting stablecoins for corridors where traditional cross-border payments create the most friction.

The report sets out market-size measures that vary by methodology. Stablecoin transaction volume estimates range from $10 trillion to $390 billion. The market capitalisation of 1:1 fiat-linked stablecoins was about $308 billion over the period covered, and the document notes episodes when that market cap detached from broader crypto cycles.

Corridor analysis focuses on intra-APAC lanes including Singapore–Hong Kong–Japan and Taiwan–Japan–South Korea, plus APAC–US and APAC–Middle East flows. The report highlights high-volume remittance corridors from the US and Gulf states into the Philippines, India and Indonesia and compares cost benchmarks with correspondent banking.

The document also records recent deal activity tied to corridor building, including Payward’s up-to-$600 million acquisition of Reap. It lists near-term regulatory milestones and where additional licences and multi-currency settlement arrangements are expected to appear. The report presents a corridor-by-corridor snapshot of licensed stablecoin infrastructure and where regulated digital money is being used in commercial flows.