The narrative surrounding cryptocurrency is undergoing a fundamental transformation: a shift away from volatile speculation toward a more stable, utility-driven role within global financial infrastructure.
The 2025 Endeavour Catalyst Annual Report identifies emerging markets as the primary drivers of this change, particularly through the adoption of stablecoins and tokenised assets. Where legacy systems struggle — for payments, savings and cross-border transfers — digital assets are increasingly serving practical needs.
Solving the volatility crisis with “dollars as a service”
In many emerging markets, the appeal of stablecoins is straightforward: they preserve purchasing power and lower the friction of moving value across borders. Regions — where local currencies are volatile, or banking infrastructure is costly and slow — have shown robust adoption of dollar-pegged digital assets. Executives such as Farooq Malik of Rain describe their work as providing “dollars as a service”: enabling users to receive, hold, and send value in a stable unit relative to their everyday spending needs.
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This is not the 2021 speculative boom replay. The trend now is infrastructure-first: firms that provide rails for payments, custody, settlement and tokenisation are the companies capturing long-term value.
The Standard Chartered-cited data estimate that up to US$1 trillion could eventually move from traditional bank deposits in emerging markets into stablecoins, illustrating the scale of potential change. Infrastructure builders — from firms supporting stablecoin issuance to platforms enabling tokenised treasury and trade — are central to this transition.
From speculation to infrastructure: expert consensus
Experts in the Endeavor Catalyst report argue that crypto has shifted “from speculation to infrastructure.” This trajectory began earlier in the last decade, when companies began bridging bank-grade services and crypto rails; by 2025, the focus had shifted to embedding crypto primitives into real-world financial flows. The winners are those positioning themselves as platforms for commerce and payments, rather than venues for retail trading.
Stablecoin-powered payments, tokenised assets, and programmable money are being deployed to solve persistent frictions: remittance costs, long settlement windows for cross-border trade, limited access to dollar-denominated savings, and the challenge of onboarding small and medium enterprises into digital global markets.
Southeast Asia: why the region matters
Southeast Asia deserves special attention in this new phase. The region combines high mobile penetration, large remittance flows, substantial informal economies, and a sizeable unbanked or underbanked population — a fertile environment for stablecoin-based payments and tokenised financial services.
Key dynamics in the region include:
- Remittances and diaspora flows: Several Southeast Asian economies are materially remittance-dependent. Workers abroad sending money home require low-cost, fast, reliable transfers. Digital remittance models that use stablecoins for on-chain settlement and local rails for off-ramp can reduce fees and settlement times compared with correspondent banking.
- High mobile-first adoption: Many consumers in the region access financial services primarily through smartphones and e-wallets. That digital stack lowers the marginal cost of integrating tokenised payments or dollar-pegged digital assets for everyday transactions and merchant acceptance.
- Large informal and MSME sectors: Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) often lack access to credit and traditional FX hedging. Tokenisation and programmable payments can create new on-ramps for these businesses to participate in borderless trade, invoice financing and supply-chain finance.
- Regulatory stewardship and regional hubs: Singapore’s continued positioning as a regulated digital asset hub — with licensing, industry sandboxes and a clear engagement model between regulators and firms — makes it a nexus for institutional-grade infrastructure. Other regional regulators have been evolving their approaches to virtual assets and payments, balancing consumer protection with innovation.
Concrete regional patterns (without overstating)
Several narrative threads from the Endeavor Catalyst report map directly onto Southeast Asian realities:
- Digital remittance players as blueprints: The report highlights digital remittance companies that use stablecoins as exemplars. In Southeast Asia, local and regional remittance and e-wallet firms have already experimented with more efficient cross-border settlement models. These initiatives mirror the broader trend of moving settlement onto faster, lower-cost rails while preserving local on/off-ramps for users who still transact in local currency.
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- From retail trading to B2B payments and trade finance: Startups that pivot away from retail crypto speculation toward infrastructure for B2B payments, payroll, and trade are better aligned with investor interest. Global fintech investors looking for “real-world applications” increasingly target companies focused on payments, custody, treasury, and compliance tooling — all essential for stablecoin adoption at scale.
- Banking the unbanked with regulated rails: The “dollars as a service” model can be a pragmatic way to offer dollar-like savings and payments in countries where holding physical dollars or accessing foreign currency accounts is difficult. When paired with regulated custody, transparent reserves, and robust compliance, stablecoin solutions can coexist with national monetary frameworks rather than undermining them.
Operational hurdles and the regulatory imperative
Adoption is not automatic. Practical and regulatory challenges remain:
- On/off-ramp infrastructure: For stablecoins to be useful to everyday users, reliable fiat rails and compliant local partners are necessary. This requires banks, licensed e-money issuers and regulated exchanges to work with tokenised-asset providers.
- Compliance and AML/KYC: Regulators across Southeast Asia have increased scrutiny on virtual asset service providers. Firms must embed strong know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) controls to gain institutional partners’ trust and to operate at scale.
- Reserve transparency: The credibility of dollar-pegged tokens depends on transparent, auditable reserves and governance. Markets and regulators will reward providers that regularly demonstrate backing and sound treasury practices.
What this means for Southeast Asian fintech and policy
- Startups: Firms that build payment rails, treasury services, merchant acceptance layers, payroll and remittance integrations around stablecoins and tokenised assets are best placed to capture demand. Focusing on compliance, predictable FX handling, and partnerships with incumbent players will accelerate adoption.
- Regulators: Policymakers can support beneficial outcomes by clarifying licensing regimes, enabling compliant fiat on/off-ramps, and facilitating industry sandboxes. This approach preserves monetary stability while allowing innovative payment and settlement systems to mature.
- Investors: Venture and growth investors increasingly favour enterprise-grade infrastructure and B2B propositions over retail speculation. In Southeast Asia, that translates to funding flows toward companies solving remittances, cross-border payroll, and trade settlement problems.
Conclusion
The shift from speculative trading to infrastructure use-cases is well underway, and Southeast Asia is both a beneficiary and a testbed for this transformation. Stablecoins and tokenisation are addressing real frictions — high remittance costs, volatile local currencies, and limited cross-border payment options — by offering dollar-equivalent stability combined with the speed and programmability of digital rails.
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With measured regulatory engagement, strong transparency, and partnerships across the banking and fintech ecosystem, the region could accelerate the global move toward a crypto-enabled layer of financial infrastructure that serves everyday commerce and cross-border value flows.
The full Endeavor report can be accessed here.
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