Crypto Long & Short: Asia’s regulated crypto future

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Crypto Long & Short: Asia’s regulated crypto future Asia's adoption of crypto and stablecoins is driving regulated growth in payments and remittances. Learn how Singapore, Hong Kong, India, and Korea are leading the way. What to know: In today’s newsletter, Hassan Ahmed outlines the state of crypto, stablecoins and regulations in Asia, comparing growth to regions with clarity. Then, in “Ask an Expert,” Xin Yan, CEO of Sign, answers questions about crypto and stablecoin adoption in Asia. Crypto Adoption In Asia: What Advisors Need To Know The reality of crypto in Asia The idea that Asia is an emerging market trying to catch up on crypto is outdated. In fact, Asia is one of the most integrated markets for digital assets. Today, jurisdictions across Asia are already embedding digital assets, such as stablecoins, into financial infrastructure across payments, settlement, treasury and remittances, treating them as more than just speculative trading tools. The clearest evidence is the region’s stablecoin flow. Asia accounted for $12.5 trillion in stablecoin transaction volume in 2025, a 67% jump from $7.5 trillion the year prior, the highest of any region globally. This volume did not come from speculative trading. It reflects real utility, as businesses and individuals use stablecoins to move money faster and more cheaply across borders. Singapore as a case study Singapore presents a strong example of what a well-run framework looks like in practice. A study conducted by Coinbase and MoneyHero Group found that 61% of finance-forward Singaporeans now hold crypto. Among these crypto holders, Gen Z ownership doubled from 18% to 36% in a single year. This is in sharp contrast to the early days, when ownership was concentrated among tech enthusiasts and early adopters. This did not happen by chance. Singapore built a deliberate regulatory runway spanning nearly a decade, with regulators and industry moving in tandem at each stage. As early as 2016, Singapore launched Project Ubin for early blockchain infrastructure trials and later established a licensing framework for digital payment tokens through the Payment Services Act. This was followed in 2019 by institutional DeFi pilots with Project Guardian in 2022 and, most recently, BLOOM in 2025 to deepen institutional infrastructure. The result is a market where regulatory clarity, institutional infrastructure and industry participants operate in sync. The effects are already visible. Singapore is home to over 700 fintech firms and more than 300 Web3 companies, with institutional crypto trading volumes in the tens of billions. Singapore is less an outlier and more a preview of what other markets are building toward. Significant use cases across Asia Adoption across Asia is also structurally diverse. While other regions tend to concentrate around a single use case, Asian markets are leading in different areas, shaped by their regulatory environments and economic structures. This breadth reflects how crypto functions as a multi-purpose financial infrastructure. Hong Kong, Korea and India are prime examples of how adoption can take different forms. Hong Kong has positioned itself as a hub for institutional digital asset activity through intentional pilot programmes and clear regulation. Spot bitcoin and ether ETFs were approved in 2024, giving institutional investors direct, regulated exposure to crypto for the first time. In early 2026, two stablecoin licences were issued to HSBC and Standard Chartered-led groups. This is a signal that Hong Kong’s digital asset ecosystem welcomes established financial institutions as active participants, not just observers. India represents a different kind of adoption: driven by economic necessity rather than institutional infrastructure. With around 119 million crypto users, India has the largest user base in the world, which contributes to over $100 billion in annual remittances. The country's digital foundation makes this possible. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) processes over 20 billion transactions a month, and a large base of smartphone users has allowed crypto adoption to spread well beyond major cities into wider parts of the country. Korea stands out for its retail participation. Around 33% of Korean adults hold crypto, roughly twice the rate in the US, while trading volume across Korean exchanges reached approximately 1.76 trillion Won at the end of 2025. This is proof that crypto trading has become a mainstream financial behaviour for a significant share of the population. Korea’s regulators are advancing this demand as they work to bring structure to a market that has already matured beyond the early-adopter stage. Future outlook The next phase is interoperability, not just adoption or regulation. Asia has already established strong regulations and built up a good base of institutional and retail adopters. But siloed markets remain a bottleneck. The next phase of growth depends on coordination across jurisdictions. A unified framework would allow funds and users to move more freely across borders, reducing the friction that currently limits the region's potential. The CLARITY Act, on the near horizon, will set a new global benchmark. When the world's largest economy defines rules, others follow. Asian regulators will need to update their frameworks to stay current and to preserve their regulatory edge. Advisors should track a few signals over the next twelve months: growth in cross-border stablecoin flows, the emergence of region-wide settlement frameworks and how swiftly individual markets respond to the CLARITY Act. Proactive policy design and regional coordination will determine Asia’s position in the next era of finance. Ask an Expert Q. What does the Asian economic situation look like in terms of long-term crypto and stablecoin adoption? Asia is right at the center of real-world stablecoin adoption, particularly for payments, remittances, treasury management and cross-border commerce. Data shows that over half of institutions in the region already operate stablecoins, while a growing number are either piloting or planning to implement them. Stablecoins are actually fast becoming a foundational layer of the region's evolving payments infrastructure. A new stablecoin-backed payment system is emerging across Asia: P2P, real-time and multi-currency, enabling people to travel and pay freely across borders. Q. What is your advice for investors and advisors looking to further integrate crypto and stablecoins in their portfolios with the current Asian market outlook in mind? Stablecoins are not speculative vehicles: their value proposition comes from their utility and not price appreciation. They are designed to maintain a stable value, hence the name. The popularity of stablecoins actually requires investors and advisors to separate crypto investing from the rise of stablecoin-powered financial infrastructure. As the crypto regulation gains clarity across Asia, we are likely to see rapid growth in on-chain FX, cross-border remittance corridors, B2B payment infrastructure, tokenized treasury operations and more related use cases. So the investment opportunity lies in what is built on top of it. This means businesses, payment networks, infrastructure providers and financial applications that are built around on-chain settlement and programmable money. Q. Do you believe that regulations and perspectives on crypto will change the way crypto is handled in the region, or should advisors have a different approach moving forward? Regulators across the region are increasingly aligning on core principles, which serves as a massive tailwind for companies operating across borders. Currently, the region is moving away from lightly regulated speculative markets toward institutional-grade digital asset frameworks focused on compliance, licensed issuers, reserve backing, guaranteed redemption rights, consumer protection and payment utility. This shift is giving financial institutions and enterprises greater confidence to participate in the ecosystem. As jurisdictions adapt these ideas to their own financial structures at different speeds and in alignment with their priorities, we are seeing regulatory convergence that creates a more predictable environment for crypto companies to operate in. As cross-border inconsistencies are reduced on the way to harmonization, the compliance playbook is becoming more legible and transferable for advisors, though jurisdiction-level due diligence still matters. For advisors, the mandatory pivot is to transcend outdated crypto-native narratives to understand regulated applications. As stablecoins become financial plumbing, those with a deeper grasp of both TradFi and blockchain-based infrastructure and who are building frameworks suited to the emerging regulated environment will be better positioned for the future. Keep Reading - Mastercard secures a New York BitLicense, clearing the way for the payments giant to operate digital asset and stablecoin infrastructure. - The stablecoin market hits a record $322 billion, making it larger than the FX reserves of 95 countries. - Banca Sella becomes the first Italian bank cleared to offer crypto custody and transfer services under MiCA. More For You

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