When a vacationer from Bangkok faucets to pay in Singapore utilizing their Thai e-wallet, few cease to contemplate what powers that transaction.
But for Singapore-based StraitsX, the corporate behind the stablecoin infrastructure operating in 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 instances, the corporate’s co-founder and CEO Tianwei Liu informed CoinDesk.
The variety of playing cards issued grew even quicker, growing 83-fold. That knowledge factors to one of many fastest-growing stablecoin card applications in Southeast Asia.
Those multiples, whereas putting, include context. One of StratisX’s main crypto card partnerships, with RedotPay, solely soft-launched in late 2024, suggesting This fall of that 12 months represents comparatively low baseline volumes.
Across the broader crypto card business, 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 development charge, suggesting StraitsX is using a rising tide relatively than simply outperforming a static market.
Dune Analytics knowledge 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 rate by This fall 2025, a 460% year-over-year improve.
Notably, RedotPay, one in every of StraitsX’s BIN sponsorship companions, processed over $2.95 billion in card quantity in 2025, greater than 4 instances the mixed quantity of its 13 closest opponents, in keeping with obtainable knowledge. That positions StraitsX’s infrastructure on the centre of the class’s dominant participant.
The query is whether or not these early-stage development charges maintain as the card base matures and the novelty of stablecoin-backed spending provides method to competitors on options, rewards, and price.
The firm’s core providing sits in the background. Rather than constructing a consumer-facing app, StraitsX gives 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 prospects 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 user cares about whether a payment runs on stablecoins or fiat; they only care if the payment goes through,” Liu stated.
That angle frames the corporate’s technique: make the stablecoin layer invisible. StraitsX processes nearly $30 billion in cumulative stablecoin transactions, however its ambition goes past uncooked quantity. Liu desires stablecoins to behave like fiber-optic cables: current in every single place however unnoticed.
By the tip of March, StraitsX expects to launch its two stablecoins, XSGD and XUSD, on the Solana blockchain. That deployment, in partnership with the Solana Foundation, marks the primary time each tokens will stay natively on a high-speed blockchain.
The tokens will assist the x402 standard, which permits for machine-to-machine micropayments.
“When fees drop close to zero, you can suddenly move very small amounts of money, very frequently,” Liu stated. “Payments start to look more like internet data flows, continuous, low cost, and embedded directly into applications.”
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 in the 12 months, when the Singapore greenback hit an 11-year high towards the U.S. greenback.
Looking past Singapore
Now, StraitsX is wanting past Singapore. A cross-border hall with Thailand is ready to go stay underneath Project BLOOM, a regulatory initiative from Singapore’s central financial institution.
The system will permit Thai vacationers to scan QR codes in Singapore utilizing OkBank’s Q Wallet and pay retailers in their native foreign money. The transaction will convert between Thailand’s Q-money and StraitsX’s XSGD in the background, one other stablecoin-powered fee hiding in plain sight.
Liu stated the mannequin follows a well-recognized playbook. GrabPay and Alipay+ integrations, as an illustration, required no consumer retraining. Still, the agency has seen a 400% improve in service provider transaction quantity and a sixfold soar in the variety of distinctive customers transacting with these retailers month-over-month.
Similar rollouts are deliberate in Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Like driving an electrical automobile
Visa, one in every of StraitsX’s main companions, sees the shift as a pure evolution in payments. Adeline Kim, Visa’s Singapore and Brunei nation supervisor, informed CoinDesk stablecoin-backed playing cards do not change the client expertise.
The playing cards work the identical as conventional ones, full with chargeback protections and fiat settlements.
“It’s like driving an electric car versus a car that runs on fuel on the same highway,” Kim stated. “The vehicle is different, but the road signs, toll booths, and rules don’t change.”
The development suits a sample seen throughout the business. Full-stack crypto card issuers like Rain and Reap, which maintain direct Visa principal membership and handle their very own settlement, have scaled rapidly. Rain to over $3 billion annualized and Reap to over $6 billion.
Remittances are a key use case. The World Bank estimates sending $200 internationally nonetheless prices a mean of 6.49%. With stablecoins, these charges drop dramatically.
Looking 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 consumer habits.
For Liu, success means disappearing. The finest stablecoin infrastructure, he stated, is one individuals do not see. The transaction simply works.
