Singapore’s crypto economy grew 55.4% to $284 billion in the year ended June 2026, reclaiming its place as the largest crypto market in Central and Southern Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania, even as the wider region shrank, according to Chainalysis.
The broader CSAO crypto economy contracted 6.8% over the same period. In Singapore, the main driver was institutional platform activity, which rose 94% to $60 billion. Chainalysis said that volume was concentrated among a small number of market makers, over-the-counter trading firms and institutional brokerages.
“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 come as Singapore continues to tighten crypto rules while backing tokenization, stablecoins and digital-asset settlement.
In 2025, the Monetary Authority of Singapore required local crypto firms serving overseas clients to either obtain a license or exit. StraitsX CEO Tianwei Liu said the policy reduced speculative activity while leaving more institutional participants, including banks and large companies, using blockchain in production.
At the same time, MAS has expanded tokenization and settlement programs. Its BLOOM initiative supports trials involving regulated stablecoins and tokenized bank money. On March 25, Ripple joined the program to test cross-border trade settlement using RLUSD.
The Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam stood out in low-value P2P transfers
While Singapore led on institutional activity, Chainalysis identified growing small-value peer-to-peer transfers in the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
During the reporting period, the three countries recorded a combined 5.4 million domestic and cross-border P2P transfers worth less than $10,000. That represented 14.4% of the global total, even though the three markets accounted for only 2.5% of the global crypto economy.
More than four in five domestic P2P transfers across those markets were below $1,000. The average transfer size was $618, compared with $1,210 across the rest of the world.
In the Philippines, the International Monetary Fund previously said authorities viewed crypto use as being driven mainly by remittances and investment. World Bank data showed personal remittances equaled 8.5% of GDP in 2025.
In Vietnam, outlet Tuoi Tre reported in June that P2P trading had become an important fiat on-and-off-ramp because the Vietnamese dong is not widely supported in direct crypto trading pairs. Reuters also reported in March that most crypto traders in Vietnam rely on overseas exchanges, making P2P channels an important route between local bank accounts and crypto assets traded on those platforms.
In Thailand, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in September that it had observed a significant increase in the volume and value of stablecoin transactions, particularly USDT.
Cross-border stablecoin usage exceeded domestic activity
Chainalysis also said cross-border stablecoin use is rising. In every market it analyzed, cross-border stablecoin activity exceeded domestic activity. Across the region, cross-border activity was 3.2 times larger than domestic activity.
“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 each hosted sizable domestic stablecoin markets, at $10.4 billion and $6.9 billion, respectively. In both markets, cross-border stablecoin activity was significantly larger than domestic activity.
In the Philippines, PDAX founder and CEO Nichel Gaba estimated that 5% to 10% of inbound remittances are settled using stablecoins. He added 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 aimed at cutting the cost and processing time of overseas payments to Filipino freelancers and remote workers.