Singapore's crypto economy expanded 55.4% to $284 billion in the year ended June 2026, regaining its position as the largest crypto economy in Central and Southeast Asia and Oceania (CSAO) even as the broader regional market contracted 6.8%, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.

Institutional flows drove the surge. Institutional platform activity in Singapore rose 94% to $60 billion, concentrated among a small number of market makers, over-the-counter trading firms and institutional brokerages. Chainalysis said the growth reflected high-volume activity by existing platforms rather than new market entrants.

"The growth in Singapore's institutional platform ecosystem was very concentrated and marked by mostly high-volume activity by existing platforms rather than the dynamic entry of new services," Chainalysis told Cointelegraph.

The figures arrive as the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) tightens oversight of digital-asset firms while simultaneously expanding state-backed initiatives in tokenization, stablecoins and settlement infrastructure.

In 2025, MAS required local crypto firms serving overseas clients to obtain a license or exit the market. Tianwei Liu, CEO of payments firm StraitsX, said the measure reduced speculative activity while leaving a more institutional base of users — including banks and large corporates — operating blockchain systems in production.

MAS has also broadened its tokenization agenda. Its BLOOM program supports trials using regulated stablecoins and tokenized bank money. On March 25, Ripple joined the initiative to test cross-border trade settlement using its RLUSD stablecoin.

Small-value P2P transfers concentrate in Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam

While Singapore's growth was institutional, Chainalysis identified a parallel retail pattern elsewhere in the region. The Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam together recorded 5.4 million peer-to-peer transfers valued below $10,000 — domestic and cross-border combined — during the reporting period. That represents 14.4% of global small-value P2P volume, despite the three countries accounting for only 2.5% of the global crypto economy.

The transfers are genuinely small. More than four in five domestic P2P transfers across the three markets were below $1,000, with an average size of $618 versus $1,210 in the rest of the world.

The pattern tracks underlying financial conditions in each market. In the Philippines, the International Monetary Fund has said authorities view crypto use as driven primarily by remittances and investment, and World Bank data show personal remittances equaled 8.5% of GDP in 2025.

In Vietnam, P2P trading has become a critical fiat gateway because the Vietnamese dong is not widely supported in direct trading pairs, Vietnamese outlet Tuoi Tre reported in June. Reuters reported in March that most Vietnamese traders rely on overseas exchanges, making P2P channels a key bridge between local bank accounts and offshore platforms.

In Thailand, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in September it observed a significant increase in the volume and value of stablecoin transactions, particularly USDT.

Stablecoins dominate cross-border flows

Cross-border stablecoin activity exceeded domestic activity in every market Chainalysis analyzed, with regional cross-border volumes running 3.2 times larger than domestic ones.

"Stablecoins account for a growing share in all three. Plausibly, the drivers of this adoption link to ease of use, speed and low transfer costs," Chainalysis told Cointelegraph.

Thailand and Vietnam host sizable domestic stablecoin markets, at $10.4 billion and $6.9 billion respectively, though cross-border activity dwarfed both figures.

Institutional adoption is also advancing in the Philippines. Nichel Gaba, CEO and founder of crypto exchange PDAX, estimated that 5% to 10% of inbound remittances are settled using stablecoins, adding that major remittance companies are pursuing stablecoin settlement initiatives in the country. In July, the Bank of the Philippine Islands disclosed plans for a stablecoin settlement pilot intended to cut the cost and processing time of overseas payments to Filipino freelancers and remote workers.

The diverging trajectories — deepening institutional concentration in Singapore and remittance-driven retail flows elsewhere — suggest the region's next structural shift will hinge on how MAS's BLOOM trials and parallel stablecoin settlement pilots move from experimentation into production-scale payment rails.