Malaysia and Thailand Join Singapore's Stablecoin Initiative

The central banks of Malaysia and Thailand have joined the BLOOM initiative. Led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the project focuses on using stablecoins and tokenized deposits for international transactions.

BLOOM stands for an open, liquid, and multi-currency system. The initiative aims to lower operational costs and speed up financial services by removing the need for individual bilateral agreements between institutions.

The program originated from Project Orchid, which began in 2021 to study the digital Singapore dollar. Its current scope includes corporate cash management, trade finance, and payments made by artificial intelligence agents.

Major financial and technology players are part of the ecosystem. Participants include Visa, Mastercard, Ripple, Airwallex, and the World Bank Group.

Malaysia plans to conduct tests with ringgit-pegged stablecoins in 2026. These experiments target wholesale payments in both domestic and global operations.

The integration of new countries into digital payment infrastructures can reduce currency friction and increase demand for liquidity in digital assets, impacting the perception of risk regarding traditional settlement systems.