XREX was the only Taiwanese company among the winners at the inaugural AFA Awards 2026, receiving the Regulatory Excellence Award at the final held in Taipei on September 1.
The awards were organized by the Asia FinTech Alliance. More than 100 companies from 16 economies took part in the competition. The selection process first narrowed the field to 30 companies and then to 10 finalists. Those 10 companies presented at the Taipei final before the five category winners were selected.
The five award winners
- Financial Infrastructure Award: First Answer Pte Ltd, Singapore.
- Regulatory Excellence Award: XREX Inc. (XREX Group), Taiwan.
- Market Expansion Award: Liquid Group Pte. Ltd., Singapore.
- Fastest Growing Award: PolicyStreet, Malaysia.
- Cross-Border FinTech Unicorn Potential Award: Finmo Tech Pte Ltd, Singapore.
First Answer Pte Ltd is the registered company behind Liminal, an institutional digital-asset custody platform. It provides institutional custody infrastructure and Wallet-as-a-Service infrastructure.
XREX is a blockchain financial institution. Its Taiwan entity is one of the first virtual asset service providers in Taiwan to complete anti-money-laundering registration with the Securities and Futures Bureau of the Financial Supervisory Commission. Its Singapore entity holds a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, or MAS, and operates XREX Pay, a stablecoin-focused business-to-business cross-border payments platform.
Liquid Group is a cross-border payments company that holds an MAS Major Payment Institution license. Through roamQR, it connects electronic wallets and QR networks across countries. Its cross-border QR payment acceptance network covers 10 Asian markets, including Taiwan.
PolicyStreet operates in embedded insurance, placing insurance directly into transaction flows on e-commerce and other digital platforms. It works with more than 40 life, general and Islamic insurance, or Takaful, providers. Its stated focus is reducing protection gaps.
Finmo Tech describes its product as a financial operating system. The platform combines international payments, multi-currency accounts, cash-flow visibility, forecasting and foreign-exchange hedging. It supports payments in more than 180 countries and has launched an artificial-intelligence assistant called MO AI.
XREX’s regulatory focus
XREX was co-founded by Wayne Huang and Winston Hsiao in 2019. Huang is the group’s current chief executive. The company positions itself as a blockchain financial institution and has focused on compliance and regulatory cooperation.
During its presentation at the final, XREX shared how blockchain traceability can assist with tracing and returning illicit funds. That compliance focus corresponds to the stated basis of the Regulatory Excellence Award.
Taiwan had five other companies on the shortlist. According to the official shortlist, BaaS Innovation, a subsidiary of ADATA, reached the Top 10 for the Financial Infrastructure Award. Its general manager is Huang Chi-Cheng, and its work focuses on enterprise blockchain, VASP compliance and digital-asset infrastructure.
Cybersecurity company CyCraft reached the Top 10 for the Market Expansion Award. Its offering focuses on embedding enterprise cybersecurity into hardware through artificial-intelligence agents, lowering the barrier for financial institutions to adopt such protection. Gogolook, the parent company of Whoscall, OwlTing and Eastern Union reached the Top 30.
Of the seven Taiwanese companies recommended by the Taiwan FinTech Association, six reached the Top 30.
From 16 economies to five awards
The AFA Awards are the Asia FinTech Alliance’s first cross-border fintech awards. This edition covered 16 economies and used two selection rounds, moving from the wider field to the Top 30 and then the Top 10. At the Taipei final on September 1, the 10 finalists gave presentations before the five winners were chosen.
XREX received the Regulatory Excellence Award in the first edition, while several other Taiwanese companies advanced through the shortlist stages.