Malaysia, Thailand join Singapore’s cross-border stablecoin push

BLOOM, short for Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency, is a public-private initiative that intends to help financial institutions use stablecoins and tokenized deposits for cross-border payments.

According to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, BLOOM aims to cut costs and help institutions bring services to market faster by reducing the need for institutions to set up arrangements with each counterparty or market.

MAS launched BLOOM in October 2025, building on Project Orchid, which began in 2021 to explore uses for a digital Singapore dollar. BLOOM’s work also covers corporate cash management, trade finance and payments executed by AI agents within predefined limits.

BLOOM’s participants include Airwallex, Mastercard, Ripple, Visa and the World Bank Group.

Bank Negara Malaysia separately announced in February that three initiatives would test ringgit stablecoins and tokenized deposits for domestic and cross-border wholesale payments in 2026.