When a vacationer from Bangkok faucets to pay in Singapore utilizing their Thai e-wallet, few cease to think about what powers that transaction.
However for Singapore-based StraitsX, the corporate behind the stablecoin infrastructure working within the background, that seamless expertise is strictly the purpose.
Between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the identical interval in 2025, StraitsX noticed its card transaction quantity surge by 40 occasions, the corporate’s co-founder and CEO Tianwei Liu advised CoinDesk.
The variety of playing cards issued grew even quicker, rising 83-fold. That information factors to one of many fastest-growing stablecoin card applications in Southeast Asia.
These multiples, whereas hanging, include context. Considered one of StratisX’s main crypto card partnerships, with RedotPay, solely soft-launched in late 2024, suggesting This autumn of that yr represents comparatively low baseline volumes.
Throughout the broader crypto card trade, Artemis Analytics estimates international month-to-month volumes grew from roughly $100 million in early 2023 to over $1.5 billion by late 2025, a 106% compound annual progress price, suggesting StraitsX is using a rising tide reasonably than simply outperforming a static market.
Dune Analytics information reveals whole crypto card spending tracked onchain grew 420% in 2025, from roughly $23 million in January to $120 million by December, with Visa capturing over 90% of onchain card quantity. Visa’s stablecoin-linked card spend alone reached a $3.5 billion annualized run price by This autumn 2025, a 460% year-over-year enhance.
Notably, RedotPay, one among StraitsX’s BIN sponsorship companions, processed over $2.95 billion in card quantity in 2025, greater than 4 occasions the mixed quantity of its 13 closest opponents, in response to obtainable information. That positions StraitsX’s infrastructure on the centre of the class’s dominant participant.
The query is whether or not these early-stage progress charges maintain as the cardboard base matures and the novelty of stablecoin-backed spending provides option to competitors on options, rewards, and price.
The corporate’s core providing sits within the background. Moderately than constructing a consumer-facing app, StraitsX offers the infrastructure for others to construct on. It acts as a Visa BIN sponsor, enabling companions like RedotPay and UPay to situation playing cards.
When clients faucet or scan to pay with these, stablecoins settle the transaction in actual time, with native foreign money arriving immediately on the opposite aspect.
“No person cares about whether or not a cost runs on stablecoins or fiat; they solely care if the cost goes by way of,” Liu stated.
That angle frames the corporate’s technique: make the stablecoin layer invisible. StraitsX processes almost $30 billion in cumulative stablecoin transactions, however its ambition goes past uncooked quantity. Liu needs stablecoins to behave like fiber-optic cables: current in every single place however unnoticed.
By the top of March, StraitsX expects to launch its two stablecoins, XSGD and XUSD, on the Solana blockchain. That deployment, in partnership with the Solana Basis, marks the primary time each tokens will dwell natively on a high-speed blockchain.
The tokens will help the x402 customary, which permits for machine-to-machine micropayments.
“When charges drop near zero, you may out of the blue transfer very small quantities of cash, very often,” Liu stated. “Funds begin to look extra like web information flows, steady, low value, and embedded straight into functions.”
XSGD already leads the non-USD stablecoin market in Southeast Asia, with greater than 70% share. It maintains a 1:1 peg with the Singapore greenback, backed by month-to-month audits. That peg gained additional relevance early within the yr, when the Singapore greenback hit an 11-year excessive towards the U.S. greenback.
Wanting past Singapore
Now, StraitsX is trying past Singapore. A cross-border hall with Thailand is about to go dwell below Undertaking BLOOM, a regulatory initiative from Singapore’s central financial institution.
The system will permit Thai vacationers to scan QR codes in Singapore utilizing KBank’s Q Pockets and pay retailers of their native foreign money. The transaction will convert between Thailand’s Q-money and StraitsX’s XSGD within the background, one other stablecoin-powered cost hiding in plain sight.
Liu stated the mannequin follows a well-recognized playbook. GrabPay and Alipay+ integrations, as an example, required no person retraining. Nonetheless, the agency has seen a 400% enhance in service provider transaction quantity and a sixfold leap within the variety of distinctive customers transacting with these retailers month-over-month.
Comparable rollouts are deliberate in Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Like driving an electrical automotive
Visa, one among StraitsX’s main companions, sees the shift as a pure evolution in funds. Adeline Kim, Visa’s Singapore and Brunei nation supervisor, advised CoinDesk stablecoin-backed playing cards do not change the shopper expertise.
The playing cards work the identical as conventional ones, full with chargeback protections and fiat settlements.
“It is like driving an electrical automotive versus a automotive that runs on gas on the identical freeway,” Kim stated. “The car is totally different, however the highway indicators, toll cubicles, and guidelines do not change.”
The expansion matches a sample seen throughout the trade. Full-stack crypto card issuers like Rain and Reap, which maintain direct Visa principal membership and handle their very own settlement, have scaled quickly. Rain to over $3 billion annualized and Reap to over $6 billion.
Remittances are a key use case. The World Financial institution estimates sending $200 internationally nonetheless prices a median of 6.49%. With stablecoins, these charges drop dramatically.
Wanting forward, Kim sees stablecoin playing cards evolving past utility. She expects future choices to incorporate real-time spending insights, cross-border perks and reward programs tailor-made to person conduct.
For Liu, success means disappearing. One of the best stablecoin infrastructure, he stated, is one individuals do not see. The transaction simply works.
