asia-pacific

A survey released by Visa shows that consumer interest in stablecoins is rising in the Asia-Pacific region. The survey covered 14,250 respondents, of which 46% indicated they might use stablecoins in the next five years, while the actual usage rate in the past 12 months was 16%. About 49% of respondents believe that stablecoins are likely to become a common method for cross-border transfers within five years. Nischint Sanghavi, Visa's head of digital currency for the Asia-Pacific region, stated that consumer perceptions of stablecoins are undergoing a significant shift.The cognitive gap remains significant. Visa stated that only 6% of respondents accurately understand how stablecoins work, and 49% of those who are aware of stablecoins believe they can only be used for buying and selling cryptocurrencies. Among respondents who are aware of stablecoins but have not yet used them, concerns about fraud and scams are the most frequently mentioned barriers. There are approximately 2.5 billion middle-class consumers in the Asia-Pacific region, with nearly half open to using cryptocurrencies pegged to fiat currencies.Visa has expanded its stablecoin settlement network and is seeking to support more tokens and blockchains. Its partner Reap is preparing a local currency stablecoin for 24/7 foreign exchange settlements in Asia and other markets, which may include tokens for the Hong Kong dollar, South Korean won, and Japanese yen. Asia currently leads the world in stablecoin capital flows and on-chain activity, with payment companies driving the conversion of related demand into everyday payment products.

Ripple and the XRP Ledger Foundation have jointly established a new organization, XRP Asia, headquartered in Singapore, focusing on ecological development in the Asia-Pacific region. The organization is led by Sabrina Tachdjian, who previously managed the Asia-Pacific and fintech and payment operations at the Hedera Foundation and oversaw blockchain investments at LINE.XRP Asia will provide learning resources, system integrator collaboration programs, hackathons, office hours, and product implementation guidance for developers and startups. Market expansion support includes partner referrals, incubation and funding project connections, founder story dissemination, and introductions to relevant investors.The organization will rely on the existing communities of XRPL Korea and XRPL Japan and assist in establishing new communities in major cities and development hubs across Asia. Officials stated that Asia has long been an important region for the XRP Ledger, with an active digital asset market, developers, and the XRP community.

According to BBX data, yesterday global publicly listed companies in the US stock market and well-known Web3 infrastructure providers disclosed the latest developments on expansion in the Asia-Pacific hub, institutional collaborations, and brand strategy restructuring. The core information is as follows:MoonPay established a subsidiary in South Korea as the Asia-Pacific hub, partnering with KakaoBank, Woori Bank, and KB Financial Group: Global cryptocurrency payment infrastructure giant MoonPay officially announced the establishment of a wholly-owned subsidiary in South Korea, planning to make it a comprehensive expansion center for the group in the Asia-Pacific region. At the same time, MoonPay has reached deep strategic cooperation with South Korea's three major mainstream financial institutions—KakaoBank, Woori Bank, and KB Financial Group. The scope of cooperation includes cross-border payment clearing, localization distribution of the Korean won stablecoin, digital wallet technology integration, and the establishment of compliant cryptocurrency fiat withdrawal and recharge channels, aiming to build a high-speed network for the flow of funds between South Korea and the global Web3.CEA Industries officially renamed to "BNB Standard," Nasdaq trading code changed to "BNC": Nasdaq-listed company CEA Industries, focusing on BNB reserve strategies, announced the completion of its brand transformation and strategic renaming, with the company name officially changed to BNB Standard. After the renaming, the company's common stock will continue to be traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market, and the securities trading code will be officially changed to "BNC." This renaming aims to directly highlight its strategic positioning of using BNB as a core treasury asset and promoting decentralized ecological investment.

On August 12, institutional digital asset lending technology provider Digital Prime Technologies announced a strategic investment from global institutional digital asset prime broker LTP. LTP will become its chief strategic partner in the Asia-Pacific region, helping the Tokenet platform expand institutional participation in the Asia-Pacific market.Tokenet is Digital Prime Technologies' institutional-grade digital asset and tokenized asset lending platform. Following this investment, LTP will work alongside previously joined EquiLend, Galaxy Digital, and Marex to promote the global institutional infrastructure development of Tokenet. LTP stated that it will leverage its network of institutional clients, prime brokerage capabilities, and financing expertise to accelerate the adoption of Tokenet among financial institutions in the Asia-Pacific region.

According to Jinshi reports, North Korean military commentators pointed out that the US, Japan, and South Korea are strengthening their joint operational capabilities through military exercises, forming a "trinity" threat that could become a new security crisis in the Asia-Pacific region. The US and South Korea conducted exercises in July, carrying out large-scale "joint logistics support exercises." The US is also accelerating the reorganization of the US military command in Japan into a "joint military command" and deploying medium-range missile systems in Japan and South Korea. All parties should be vigilant and curb this trend.

According to Gate market data, the MSCI Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) stock index has risen by more than 5%.

MEXC Ventures announced its support for the global esports-style trading competition Alpha Arena, which is expanding to the Asia-Pacific region for the first time, and will serve as the main sponsor of Alpha Arena S03, with TRIV as a co-organizer. Following successful events in Amsterdam and Berlin, Alpha Arena will hold its first offline finals in the Asia-Pacific region on August 20, 2026, during Coinfest Bali.This event is expected to gather over 50 traders from 3 markets, competing for a total prize pool of $100,000. The competition will connect traders, creators, and the Web3 community in the Asia-Pacific region through trading competitions, community interactions, and ecological collaborations, creating an immersive trading competition experience together.

According to CoinPost, Kinexys, a blockchain division of JPMorgan, announced the addition of five currencies to its Blockchain Deposit Account (BDA) network: Australian Dollar (AUD), Hong Kong Dollar (HKD), Japanese Yen (JPY), Renminbi (RMB), and Singapore Dollar (SGD). This expands the total supported currencies to eight, including the existing Euro, British Pound, and US Dollar, making it the platform with the most supported currencies in the global blockchain settlement and on-chain foreign exchange field.The BDA operates on JPMorgan's private blockchain, supporting 24/7 settlement and programmable payment features. Japanese energy giant JERA Global Markets became the first enterprise to adopt the Yen BDA, aimed at optimizing internal fund flow management and liquidity allocation. Currently, Kinexys has processed a cumulative transaction volume exceeding $40 trillion, with a daily transaction volume of over $7 billion.

According to Cointelegraph, Chainlink has launched a data stream for Asia-Pacific stocks, bringing real-time data from major Asian companies such as Samsung, Toyota, Sony, and SK Hynix on-chain.

According to official news, Jito Foundation is collaborating with Solana Company (NASDAQ: HSDT) to provide institutional-grade Solana infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region. The two parties will operate BAM validators using Pacific Backbone in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea, a low-latency infrastructure network that supports staking, validation, and trading services in the Asia-Pacific region.In addition, the two parties will jointly develop institutional-grade JitoSOL staking products, delivered through Solana Company's consulting service model, to meet the compliance requirements of large capital allocators.The head of Jito Foundation's Asia-Pacific region stated that this collaboration aims to combine Jito's market layer technology with Solana Company's regional expertise and institutional network, laying the foundation for scalable and compliant participation within the Solana ecosystem.

ChainCatcher reported live that Celine Tan, Head of Liquidity Distribution at BNY Mellon Investment Management Hong Kong Limited, Kelly Sohn, Head of Digital Asset Strategy at Mirae Asset Securities (HK) Limited, Victor Jung, Head of Digital Assets at Hamilton Lane, and Xu Ping, Managing Director of Global Investment Banking at JPMorgan, attended the HK Web3 Feastival roundtable to share "The RWA Moment in Asia-Pacific: Hong Kong vs Singapore."The attendees generally believe that RWA is currently transitioning from proof of concept to broader implementation, driven mainly by the gradual maturity of technology, increasingly clear regulatory frameworks, and the rising market demand for stable, yield-generating asset allocations.Kelly Sohn stated that this round of RWA warming is different from the past, not driven by a single factor, but rather the result of the combined effects of technology, regulation, and capital flow. She also pointed out that the assets currently more suitable for tokenization include standardized products such as money market funds and commodities, and the combination of stablecoins and tokenized assets will further enhance on-chain transaction and settlement efficiency.Xu Ping mentioned that Singapore has become more cautious overall after the FTX incident, with a greater focus on institutional investors; in contrast, Hong Kong has advantages in retail access, licensing systems, and market innovation inclusiveness, making it more attractive to exchanges, stablecoin issuers, and custodians. She also noted that banks will play a key role in infrastructure, custody, and payment settlement within the RWA ecosystem.Victor Jung indicated that the market has previously focused too much on the institutional narrative, but the retail side is also an important source of demand for tokenization. He summarized the current demand into two categories: one is to obtain more yield through on-chain solutions, and the other is to reduce costs by improving efficiency. In his view, the industry driving force has gradually shifted from early technology supply to being driven by real investor demand.The roundtable discussion also mentioned that for RWA to further expand its application in the next phase, it still needs to address issues such as regulatory clarity, institutional infrastructure readiness, and investor education, as these factors remain key variables affecting the further development of the market.

On April 8, the Frontier Digital Intelligence Ecosystem 2026 Asia-Pacific Summit will be held at the Anxiang Ruilai Ke Hotel in Hangzhou Xiaoshan, gathering 500 core practitioners from the Asia-Pacific region to focus on the deep integration of AI and Web3, and to jointly explore the next growth pole of the digital intelligence ecosystem.FRONTIER is a Web4.0 decentralized prediction market platform initiated by a subsidiary of Hard Rock International, built on the X208 protocol. With a "win-win" mechanism, it breaks the traditional single gameplay of prediction markets, and the golden track, heavily invested in by giants like Binance, Coinbase, and Robinhood, is welcoming new definers.

According to official news, the OpenClaw version 2026.3.31 was released this morning. The new version adds QQ bot integration (supporting private chat, group chat, and guild chat as well as media), LINE media sending capabilities, and real background task flow management (which can list, view, and cancel tasks), enhancing automation reliability.This version update emphasizes expansion into the Asian market, including better context, memory, and TTS support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, as well as WhatsApp emoji reactions and Matrix room history streaming, aiming to cover developer communication channels beyond Slack or Discord.This update has received widespread praise from the community, but a few users reported excessive Exec approval prompts / Approval issues after the update, and a very small number of users reported occasional crashes or instability after the update.

According to Jin10 data reports, there are market rumors that Japan and other Asia-Pacific countries plan to reach a $30 billion energy and mineral agreement with the United States.

The online trading giant IG Group has completed the acquisition of the cryptocurrency trading platform Independent Reserve, which has been approved by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. This acquisition marks IG Group's official commitment to expanding its presence in the digital asset space.Independent Reserve will be integrated into the IG Group system while maintaining the stability of existing services and compliant operations. IG plans to leverage Independent Reserve's cryptocurrency technology and operational experience to launch cryptocurrency trading products tailored for local markets in Singapore, Australia, and the UAE in the second half of 2026.IG Group stated that this acquisition will help it expand compliant digital asset services in a market where regulations are gradually becoming clearer; Independent Reserve believes that with IG's resources and regional network, it will accelerate the internationalization of its cryptocurrency products.