Malaysia and Thailand central banks join Singapore-led BLOOM project on cross-border stablecoin settlement

The central banks of Malaysia and Thailand have joined BLOOM, a Singapore-led initiative working on cross-border payments using regulated stablecoins and tokenised bank deposits, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) confirmed on Friday 23 October, The Block reported.

Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand joined as policymaker members, according to the report. Other participants include Ripple, Visa, Mastercard, the World Bank Group, Circle, Coinbase, JPMorgan, Standard Chartered and Stripe. BLOOM, short for Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency, was started by MAS in October 2025.

MAS said the work would focus on how banks handle different forms of digital money in cross-border transactions, how different networks can work together, and safeguards including identity checks, sanctions screening and transaction controls, The Block reported.

“The future of finance will involve multiple forms of digital money operating across different institutions and markets,” MAS Deputy Managing Director Leong Sing Chiong said.

Bank Negara Malaysia Deputy Governor Aznan bin Abdul Aziz said cross-border payments using multiple forms of digital money were becoming a more tangible prospect. Bank of Thailand Deputy Governor Daranee Saeju said BLOOM would help the central bank examine regulatory approaches to tokenised money, particularly in cross-border payments and wholesale settlement, according to The Block.

Ripple said in March that it would test trade payments using its RLUSD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger as part of BLOOM, The Block reported.