In today’s newsletter, Hassan Ahmed outlines the state of cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and regulations in Asia, clearly comparing growth across regions.
Then, in “Ask an Expert,” Xin Yan, CEO of Sign, answers questions about cryptocurrency and stablecoin adoption in Asia.
Crypto Adoption in Asia: What Advisors Need to Know
The reality of cryptocurrencies in Asia
The idea that Asia is an emerging market playing catch-up with cryptocurrencies is outdated. In fact, Asia is one of the most integrated markets for digital assets. Today, jurisdictions across Asia are already embedding digital assets, such as stablecoins, into financial infrastructure across payments, settlements, treasury and remittances, treating them as more than just speculative trading tools.
The clearest evidence is the flow of stablecoins from the region. Asia accounted for $12.5 trillion in stablecoin transaction volume in 2025, a 67% increase from $7.5 trillion the previous year, the highest of any region globally. This volume did not come from speculative operations. It reflects real utility as companies and individuals use stablecoins to move money faster and cheaper across borders.
Singapore as a case study
Singapore presents a clear example of what a well-managed framework looks like in practice. A study by Coinbase and MoneyHero Group found that 61% of financially focused Singaporeans now own cryptocurrencies. Among these cryptocurrency 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 technology enthusiasts and early adopters.
This did not happen by chance. Singapore built a deliberate regulatory runway spanning almost a decade, with regulators and the industry moving in tandem at every stage. Back in 2016, Singapore launched Project Ubin for early blockchain infrastructure testing and later 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 participants operate in sync. The effects are already visible. Singapore is home to over 700 fintech companies and over 300 Web3 companies, with institutional cryptocurrency trading volumes in the tens of billions. Singapore is less of an outlier and more of a preview of where other markets are heading.
Important use cases across Asia
Adoption in Asia is also structurally diverse. While other regions tend to focus on a single use case, Asian markets are leading in different areas, determined by their regulatory environments and economic structures. This breadth reflects how cryptocurrencies function as a multipurpose financial infrastructure. Hong Kong, Korea and India are excellent examples of how adoption can take different forms.
Hong Kong has positioned itself as a hub for institutional digital asset activity through intentional pilot programs and clear regulation. Bitcoin and ether spot ETFs were approved in 2024, giving institutional investors direct, regulated exposure to cryptocurrencies 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 cryptocurrency 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 a month, and a large smartphone user base has allowed cryptocurrency adoption to spread far beyond major cities to broader areas of the country.
Korea stands out for its retail participation. About 33% of Korean adults own cryptocurrencies, about double that of the US, while trading volume on Korean exchanges reached approximately 1.76 trillion won by the end of 2025. This is proof that cryptocurrency trading has become a mainstream financial behavior for a significant portion of the population. Korean regulators are driving this demand as they work to structure a market that has already matured beyond the early adoption stage.
Future prospects
The next phase is interoperability, not just adoption or regulation. Asia has already established strict regulations and created a good base of institutional and retail adopters. But isolated markets remain a bottleneck. The next phase of growth depends on coordination between jurisdictions. A unified framework would allow funds and users to move more freely across borders, reducing the friction that currently limits the region’s potential.
The CLARITY Act, on the near horizon, will set a new global benchmark. When the world’s largest economy sets rules, others follow. Asian regulators will need to update their frameworks to stay current and preserve their regulatory advantage.
Advisors should monitor a few cues over the next twelve months: the growth of cross-border stablecoin flows, the emergence of regional 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 era of finance.
– Hassan Ahmed, Country Manager, Coinbase, Singapore
ask an expert
Q. What is the Asian economic situation like in terms of long-term adoption of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins?
Asia is right in 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 planning to implement them.
In reality, stablecoins are quickly becoming a critical layer of the region’s evolving payments infrastructure. A new payment system backed by stablecoins is emerging across Asia: P2P, real-time and multi-currency, allowing people to travel and pay freely across borders.
Q. What is your advice for investors and advisors looking to further integrate cryptocurrencies and stablecoins into their portfolios considering the current Asian market outlook?
Stablecoins are not speculative vehicles: their value proposition comes from their utility and not price appreciation. They are designed to maintain a stable value, hence the name. The popularity of stablecoins actually requires investors and advisors to separate cryptocurrency investment from the rise of financial infrastructure powered by stablecoins.
As cryptocurrency regulation becomes clearer across Asia, we are likely to see rapid growth in the on-chain currency market, cross-border remittance corridors, B2B payments infrastructure, tokenized treasury operations, and more related use cases. So the investment opportunity lies in what is built on top of it.
This means businesses, payment networks, infrastructure providers, and financial applications that rely on on-chain settlement and programmable money.
Q. Do you think the regulations and outlook on cryptocurrencies will change the way cryptocurrencies are handled in the region, or should advisors take a different approach in the future?
Regulators across the region are increasingly aligning with the core principles, which is a huge tailwind for businesses operating across borders.
The region is currently moving away from lightly regulated speculative markets towards institutional-grade digital asset frameworks focused on compliance, authorized issuers, reserve support, guaranteed redemption rights, consumer protection and payment utility. This shift is giving financial institutions and businesses greater confidence to participate in the ecosystem.
As jurisdictions adapt these ideas to their own financial structures at different speeds and in alignment with their priorities, we are seeing regulatory convergence that creates a more predictable environment for cryptocurrency companies to 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 pipelines, those with a deeper understanding of both TradFi and blockchain-based infrastructure and who are creating frameworks appropriate to the emerging regulated environment will be best positioned for the future.
– Xin Yan, CEO of Sign
