The Middle East and Asia are becoming increasingly natural financial partners in the crypto sector, with the corridor between them emerging as a testing ground for a new role for stablecoins
Still in the early stages of adoption, the digital tokens are moving beyond crypto trading into cross-border payments, corporate treasury and settlement. The UAE and Singapore are particularly well placed to test that shift, having built digital-asset regulation and infrastructure earlier than many other financial centres.
The opportunity is not simply faster payments. Businesses moving money between the two regions navigate different currencies, banking systems and compliance requirements. Stablecoins and other forms of digital money could help connect those systems, allowing companies to access funds sooner and potentially keep less capital tied up during settlement.
Payment networks are already integrating stablecoins into conventional financial infrastructure. Nischint Sanghavi, Visa's head of digital currencies in the Asia Pacific region, sees them developing alongside banks rather than replacing them.
“Our strategy is to enable interoperability across different forms of money and different forms of infrastructure,” he said, on the sidelines of the First Abu Dhabi Bank Middle East Summit in Singapore on Thursday.
Both markets were relatively early on regulation. Abu Dhabi Global Market introduced a comprehensive cryptoasset framework in 2018. Singapore brought digital payment token services under its Payment Services Act in 2020, while Dubai established the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority in 2022. Singapore finalised its dedicated stablecoin framework in 2023.
The UAE Central Bank has since introduced a stablecoin regulatory framework. The US came later with federal payment-stablecoin rules through the GENIUS Act in July 2025.
Bo Bai, group executive chairman and co-founder of Alpha Ladder, said the UAE and Singapore benefited from establishing clearer rules earlier than the US, although US acceptance remained important for wider global adoption.
But regulation also exposes a central problem. Mr Bai said countries applied their own anti-money-laundering and compliance requirements while public blockchains operated across borders. In effect, the technology is global, but the rules governing it remain national.
Beyond Singapore
There is already infrastructure on which a broader corridor could develop.
Singapore dollar-backed stablecoin XSGD can be used for cross-border payments and on-chain settlement, while DBS has used tokenised deposits for Ant International's round-the-clock multicurrency treasury and liquidity management.
The UAE is also moving from regulation towards use. Dirham-backed stablecoin DDSC has begun processing institutional transactions and its reach is expanding towards everyday digital payments.
The UAE has separately carried out a cross-border digital payment to China using the Digital Dirham through mBridge. That uses central bank digital currency rather than a stablecoin but points towards the same objective: moving value more directly between financial systems.
None of this amounts to a seamless Middle East-Asia digital corridor today.
Wang Hao, chief executive of Changer.ae, sees the bigger opportunity beyond the already well-connected UAE-Singapore route, particularly across Asean and North Asia, where different currencies, banking systems and compliance requirements create more friction.
Singapore itself demonstrates why stablecoins will not have equal value everywhere. Its domestic payment system is already highly efficient, Dr Bai said, reducing stablecoins' usefulness internally. The case becomes stronger when money has to move between different financial systems.
Stablecoins can move dollar-linked value on blockchain networks around the clock. But moving the token is not the same as completing the payment.
“If a token arrives in seconds but the supplier cannot use the proceeds until Monday, what have we actually improved?” Mr Wang said.
A payment may cross a blockchain in seconds but still face compliance checks, foreign exchange, conversion and local payout. That makes time to usable funds, rather than transaction speed alone, a more meaningful measure.
The bigger prize could be working capital. If round-the-clock settlement means companies need to keep less money idle or pre-funded across markets, the capital released may matter more to a chief financial officer than lower transaction fees.
Connecting, not replacing
The emerging model also challenges the early assumption that crypto would bypass traditional finance.
Visa is integrating stablecoins through settlement services and stablecoin-linked cards. Binance has similarly partnered with Circle to make USDC more available across its products.
SB Seker, head of APAC [Asia-Pacific] at Binance, said adoption in Asia was strongest where conventional finance leaves bigger gaps, including high inflation, expensive money transfers or limited access to banking. He highlighted India, Vietnam and the Philippines.
“APAC is the fastest-growing digital asset market in the world,” Mr SB said, adding that the region was seeing about “69 to 70 per cent growth year on year”.
He said the shift was also becoming visible among merchants, who historically preferred being paid in conventional currencies despite longer settlement times and reliance on correspondent banks because of the assurance fiat provided.
“Now it's not even a conversation,” Mr SB added. “Most of them default towards accepting stablecoins as payments because they see it instantly.”
Stablecoins are also finding a role in corporate treasury. Mr Seker said multinational companies moving money across borders within their own organisations could use them for treasury settlement, allowing funds to move without depending on the same chain of correspondent banks.
The result may be less about eliminating intermediaries than changing them. Banks, exchanges and payment providers will still supply liquidity, foreign exchange, custody and local payout. Who provides those services will determine who captures the economics of the new payment rails.
The same test applies to tokenisation. Putting a bond, fund or gold on a blockchain does not automatically make it more useful. Mubadala Capital, for example, has put a private markets fund on public blockchain infrastructure.
A harder test is whether a tokenised asset held in the UAE could eventually be used as collateral for financing in Singapore or Hong Kong. That requires valuation, custody, liquidity and enforceable legal rights across jurisdictions.
The UAE and Singapore's advantage will therefore depend less on being early than on what businesses can actually do with the infrastructure.
