In today’s newsletter, Hassan Ahmed describes the state of crypto, stablecoins and regulations in Asia, clearly comparing growth to regions.
Next, 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The idea that Asia is an emerging market trying to catch up in crypto is outdated. In fact, Asia is one of the most integrated markets for digital assets. Today, jurisdictions across Asia are already integrating digital assets, such as stablecoins, into the financial infrastructure of payments, settlements, treasury and remittances, treating them as more than just speculative trading tools.
The clearest evidence is the flow of stablecoins into the region. Asia accounted for $12.5 trillion in stable transaction volume in 2025, a 67% jump from $7.5 trillion the year before, the highest of any region in the world. This volume does not come from speculative transactions. This reflects real utility as businesses and individuals use stablecoins to move money faster and cheaper across borders.
Singapore as a case study
Singapore provides a good example of what a well-managed framework looks like in practice. A study conducted by Coinbase and MoneyHero Group found that 61% of financially conscious Singaporeans now hold cryptocurrencies. Among these crypto holders, Gen Z ownership doubled from 18% to 36% in a single year. This is in stark contrast to the early days, when ownership was concentrated among tech enthusiasts and early adopters.
This did not happen by chance. Singapore has deliberately built a regulatory trail spanning nearly a decade, with regulators and industry moving in tandem at every step. As early as 2016, Singapore launched Project Ubin for early trials of blockchain infrastructure and subsequently 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, more recently, BLOOM in 2025 to deepen institutional infrastructure.
The result is a market where regulatory clarity, institutional infrastructure and industry players operate in sync. The effects are already visible. Singapore is home to over 700 fintech companies and over 300 Web3 companies, with institutional crypto trading volumes in the tens of billions. Singapore is less an exception than a glimpse of what other markets are moving towards.
Important use cases in Asia
Adoption in Asia is also structurally diverse. While other regions tend to focus around a single use case, Asian markets are leaders in different areas, shaped by their regulatory environments and economic structures. This scale reflects how crypto functions as a versatile financial infrastructure. Hong Kong, Korea and India are great examples of how adoption can take different forms.
Hong Kong has positioned itself as a hub of institutional digital asset activity through intentional pilot programs and clear regulation. Spot bitcoin and ether ETFs were approved in 2024, providing institutional investors with direct, regulated exposure to crypto for the first time. In early 2026, two stablecoin licenses were issued to groups led by HSBC and Standard Chartered. This is a sign 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, contributing to over $100 billion in annual remittances. The country’s digital base makes this possible. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) processes more than 20 billion transactions per month, and a large smartphone user base has allowed crypto adoption to expand far beyond major cities into larger parts of the country.
Korea stands out for its participation in retail trade. About 33% of Korean adults hold cryptocurrencies, about twice as many as in the United States, while trading volume on Korean exchanges reached about 1.76 trillion won by the end of 2025. This proves that trading cryptocurrencies has become a common financial behavior for a significant portion of the population. Korean regulators are making the demand as they struggle to structure a market that has already moved beyond the early adopter stage.
Future outlook
The next phase is interoperability, not just adoption or regulation. Asia has already implemented strict regulations and built a good base of institutional and retail adopters. But siled markets remain a bottleneck. The next phase of growth depends on coordination between jurisdictions. A unified framework would allow funds and users to flow more freely across borders, reducing frictions that currently limit the region’s potential.
The CLARITY law, on the near horizon, will establish a new global benchmark. When the world’s largest economy sets the rules, others follow. Asian regulators will need to update their frameworks to stay current and maintain their regulatory advantage.
There are a few signals advisors should be watching over the next twelve months: the growth of cross-border stablecoin flows, the emergence of region-wide settlement frameworks, and the speed with which individual markets respond to the CLARITY Act. Proactive policy design and regional coordination will determine Asia’s position in the next financial era.
– Hassan Ahmed, Country Director, Coinbase, Singapore
Ask an expert
Q. What does the Asian economic situation look like in terms of long-term crypto and stablecoin adoption?
Asia is the center of real-world stablecoin adoption, particularly for payments, remittances, treasury management and cross-border commerce. Data shows that more than half of the region’s institutions already operate stablecoins, while a growing number are testing them or considering implementing them.
Stablecoins are quickly becoming a foundational layer of the region’s evolving payments infrastructure. A new payment system backed by stable coins is emerging in Asia: P2P, real-time and multi-currency, allowing people to travel and pay freely across borders.
Q. What advice would you give to investors and advisors looking to further integrate cryptocurrencies and stablecoins into their portfolios, taking into account the current outlook for the Asian market?
Stablecoins are not speculative vehicles: their value proposition comes from their utility and not from price appreciation. They are designed to maintain a stable value, hence their name. The popularity of stablecoins is actually forcing investors and advisors to separate crypto investing from the rise of financial infrastructure powered by stablecoins.
As crypto regulation gains clarity across Asia, we will likely see rapid growth in on-chain FX operations, cross-border remittance corridors, B2B payments infrastructure, tokenized treasury operations, and other related use cases. The investment opportunity therefore lies in what is built on it.
This means businesses, payment networks, infrastructure providers and financial applications built around on-chain settlement and programmable currency.
Q. Do you think crypto regulations and outlook will change the way crypto is managed in the region, or should advisors take a different approach in the future?
The region’s regulators are increasingly aligning themselves on fundamental principles, which is a tremendous asset for businesses operating across borders.
Currently, the region is moving away from lightly regulated speculative markets and toward institutional-grade digital asset frameworks focused on compliance, licensed issuers, reserve support, guaranteed redemption rights, consumer protection, and payment utility. This change gives financial institutions and businesses greater confidence in their participation in the ecosystem.
As jurisdictions adapt these ideas to their own financial structures at different paces and based on their priorities, we are seeing regulatory convergence that is creating a more predictable environment in which crypto companies can operate.
As cross-border inconsistencies are reduced on the path to harmonization, the compliance manual becomes more readable and transferable for advisors, although due diligence at the jurisdictional level remains important.
For advisors, the mandatory pivot is to transcend outdated crypto-native narratives to understand regulated applications. As stablecoins become financial plumbing, those who better understand both TradFi and blockchain-based infrastructure and build frameworks suited to the emerging regulated environment will be better positioned for the future.
– Xin Yan, CEO, Sign
