Digital Assets Gain Traction in Cross-Border Payments Amid Regulatory Clarity

The Monetary Authority of Singapore is backing experimentation with regulated forms of digital money.

Regulatory regimes for digital assets are maturing quickly in the US, Europe and Asia, opening the door to their wider use across major cross-border payment corridors. This maturation is giving banks and other market participants more confidence to develop new ways of moving money across borders.

The recent policy focus has centred on two forms of digital money: stablecoins and tokenised bank deposits. Regulated stablecoins are gaining momentum as regulatory frameworks mature, says Md Farid Kairi, deputy group CEO and managing director of global markets at Maybank. They could enable broader ecosystem participation and interoperability.

The EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation has established common issuer standards since 2024. In the US, the GENIUS Act, signed into law in July 2025, sets out a federal framework for payment stablecoins and is expected to take effect no later than January 2027.