The Siam Commercial Bank, one of Thailand’s leading banks introduced a stablecoin-based service for cross-border payments.
Cross-border transactions
This is the first time stablecoins have been used for international remittances in Thailand’s traditional financial sector.
SCB announced its partnership with Lightnet and Fireblocks to meet the infrastructure and custody needs for this new service.
The project successfully gone through the Bank of Thailand’s regulatory sandbox and is now fully operational.
Better user experience
SCB explained that this innovative service boosts capital efficiency by removing the need for pre-funding between partners, which lowers operational costs and allows users to transact in their local currencies, and this project promotes financial inclusion by reducing the capital required for each transaction.
“This solution will provide significant improvements to customers’ experience in cross-border money transfer and will lower transaction time and cost and be accessible on a 24/7 basis.”
Stablecoins in finance, a new paradigm
The growing adoption of stablecoins is undeniable. Michael Shaulov, co-founder and CEO of Fireblocks, discussed how stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets are helping traditional finance transition to the crypto world.
Shaulov highlighted that SCB’s initiative sets a new standard for incorporating stablecoins into mainstream banking services.
Analysts at Bernstein recently stated that stablecoins, which are pegged to fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar, are becoming systemically important.
The total supply of stablecoins is nearly $180 billion now, approaching its all-time high reached during the 2022 bear market.
