StraitsX surpasses SGD 2b in digital assets-related transactions in 2021

By Leandra Monteiro

StraitsX, Southeast Asia’s digital assets platform developed by Xfers, a Singapore-based FinTech licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for e-money issuance announced that it has surpassed the SGD 2 billion mark in digital assets-related transactions on its payment platform in 2021 alone.

Aymeric Salley, Head of StraitsX said, “The growth in transactions shows that investors are increasingly exploring digital assets as an alternative form of investment that offers liquidity and returns. Meanwhile, central banks around the world are examining the potential benefits of digital and decentralised financial systems. Recently, we have been shortlisted in the MAS Global CBDC Challenge together with our partner SEBA Bank to explore innovative retail CBDC solutions to enhance payment efficiencies, and we intend to intensify our efforts working hand-in-hand with both regulators and digital assets market participants to enable such transformation”

Adding on to this announcement is the unveiling of the new platform and identity.  The new StraitsX platform features a redesigned and streamlined user interface to enable faster and more efficient navigation. The platform enables individual users to transfer, mint and redeem XSGD with a connected bank account, in addition to spending their XSGD with various digital asset platforms. Businesses can also leverage APIs to collect, disburse and reconcile funds from their end-users. It currently supports over 10 digital asset platforms in Singapore through its API solution.

“With the increase of user adoption towards access to digital assets, we feel that we can better serve this market by separating StraitsX as a standalone brand dedicated to accelerating access to digital assets in Southeast Asia. This brand update aims to improve user experience and better communicate our mission to bring access to digital assets in Southeast Asia,” said Salley.

The new StraitsX brand logo depicts a strait, which is defined as a narrow passage of water connecting two bodies of water. Similar to a strait, StraitsX aims to connect the existing fiat-based financial system to a blockchain-based financial system, through its services and the StraitsX stablecoins. Along with this, StraitsX has also introduced a new token logo for XSGD, which features a simplified design to optimise for better readability. The equal borders at the top and the bottom represent XSGD’s one for one parity with the Singapore dollar.

In October 2020, StraitsX launched Southeast Asia’s first stablecoin – the StraitsX Singapore Dollar (XSGD), a digital token available on the Ethereum and Zilliqa blockchain that is backed one-for-one by the Singapore dollar. XSGD is supported on various digital asset platforms including decentralised finance applications such as Zilswap, Uniswap and DFX finance. As of September 2021, XSGD crossed over 1.5 billion SGD in on-chain transaction value.

Salley added, “At StraitsX, we strive to enable and accelerate access to digital assets in Asia and beyond. With the help of our valuable partners, we have seen tremendous growth in digital asset-related transactions and the adoption of XSGD. We hope to continue to bring value to our users in Southeast Asia through the StraitsX platform and the StraitsX stablecoins.”