Last year we covered the journeys of Tianwei and Hendra as they built fintechs in Singapore and Indonesia over the last decade and joined forces amidst the pandemic to bring together StraitsX’s compliant stablecoin technology with Payfazz’s deep financial services network in Indonesia. Watch this episode below:

Coming to a year later, StraitsX has refreshed its brand as it launches global distribution through partnerships with some of the biggest Web3 exchanges and fintech players around the world. We go on call with Tianwei and Hendra to check in what this means for the company moving forward and StraitsX’s renewed role in building the future of the internet.

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Directed by Paulo Joquiño

Produced by Paulo Joquiño

The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Insignia Ventures⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ fund. Any and all opinions shared in this episode are solely personal thoughts and reflections of the guest and the host.

Timestamps

(00:09) 2024 Recap;

(01:30) Introduction;

(02:29) Update on StraitsX within the context of Fazz group, Indonesia, the company’s global ambitions;

(07:13) Institutionalization of stablecoin through virtual accounts with tier-1 banks;

(10:19) Regulation and distribution as StraitsX’s key competitive advantages;

(19:00) Scaling trust for a global company;

(21:35) The road to 1.6 Trillion market;

Transcript

Challenges and Solutions in Banking Services

Paulo: Thank you guys again for joining me. It’s been, I think, yeah, more than six months already—actually almost a year—since I was last in Jakarta and had that really deep conversation with both of you. A lot has happened, both on the StraitsX Singapore side as well as in Indonesia.

But I wanted to focus this conversation in particular around the implications of the StraitsX brand refresh, along with the renewed focus on the global market. 

I wanted to start off with where we ended last year. Hendra, you were talking very passionately about the potential of marrying blockchain technology with the financial services distribution you’ve built in Indonesia—what that could potentially mean for families, mothers, children.

With this renewed focus for StraitsX, how much closer do you think Fazz and your team are to realizing this vision? Let’s start with Hendra.

Hendra: For the longest time, Fazz has been focusing on delivering banking services—or what we call a neobank—to people who are underserved by traditional banks. And when we say underserved, it means that first, access is difficult. Second, the fees are very high. Third, the speed of transactions is pretty slow.

It’s just very unfair for this market segment—this kind of marginalized population—when it comes to financial services. Over the past 10 years of building neobank services, StraitsX has emerged as a very disruptive and effective solution to the problems we’ve been facing.

We spoke about the main workers—maybe also the mothers of children in Indonesia. In the past, when these moms tried to send money, the only access they had was through providers like Western Union. With Western Union, it would probably take three to seven days for the money to arrive, which made them worry whether it had gotten lost.

On top of that, they had to pay exorbitant fees of three to five percent.

With StraitsX, it’s almost instantaneous, eliminating the worry for these workers sending money. The speed is very fast, and the fees have been reduced to less than one percent. This has already been rolled out and tested on large platforms like Alipay.

What we foresee in the future is integrating this into the neobank apps we’ve been building for underserved agents and rural populations—so they too can benefit from these services.

I feel this is going to be an exciting future. The traditional infrastructure that powers neobanks inside Fazz will now be much stronger, faster, and more affordable, with the emergence of the StraitsX infrastructure layer powering these apps.

So, I would say this is going to be one of our most important focuses moving forward.

StraitsX Global Expansion and Brand Refresh

Paulo: You did mention the implications for the apps that you’ve been building in Indonesia.

I’m sure Indonesia is just one part of the bigger picture. Maybe you can share more broadly how the rebrand is expanding the horizons of StraitsX in terms of delivering your value proposition and services?

Tianwei: Thanks, Paulo, for the question. If you think about it, the last time we met—six months or almost a year ago, right? About nine months ago—we were just getting started. But now you can really see the progress we’ve made.

The launch of XUSD, our native coin on Binance, was a major milestone—becoming a fully regulated stablecoin in terms of early compliance. Singapore itself has made a major shift.

We are no longer just a small startup based in Singapore or Southeast Asia or Indonesia. We’re now a global player in the stablecoin space.

The brand refresh, which we kicked off recently and had been working on for the past six months, recognized that our original brand—built over five years ago—needed to evolve. We needed to get the brand out there so people understand the real use cases in our markets, like Singapore and Indonesia, where stablecoins can disrupt longstanding issues: transaction speed, fees, and accessibility.

What’s happened over the past few years has given us a lot more confidence. The technology works, and the impact is real. With MAS and Binance now supporting XUSD as a regulated stablecoin—listed on the world’s number one exchange—we feel our reach goes well beyond Southeast Asia. We are now truly a global company.

The rebrand includes streamlining colors and refining our tone of voice. I’m especially excited about the new logo. It represents both infinity and—if you look at it in motion—it represents “flying money.”

That symbolism captures what we’re trying to achieve in this next phase of growth, where stablecoins become the internet of money—borderless and fast. And because of the programmable nature of stablecoins, the potential is limitless. That’s why the infinity symbol resonates so strongly with us.

Programmable Nature and Virtual Accounts

Paulo: I wanted to zoom into that programmable nature. I think you’ve already taken a step in that direction with the recent launch of virtual accounts—the DVA proposition.

Can you share a bit more about that and what it means for the use cases of the stablecoin rails you’ve been building for the past five years?

Tianwei: Sure. With the launch of XUSD on Binance, and more importantly, with our partnership with MAS to launch a well-regulated US dollar stablecoin out of Singapore, we’ve also secured Tier 1 banking partnerships—with the likes of Standard Chartered and DBS.

Together with them, we’ve built what we believe are some of the world’s leading US dollar rails—compliant and ready to meet many of the emerging needs in the stablecoin ecosystem.

The DVA product—Dedicated Virtual Account—showcases how utility is the most important use case for stablecoins.

We often talk about stablecoins being the internet of money, but it really comes down to how they’re used in day-to-day transactions. And this product is a great example.

We can now offer platforms an API that allows them to create a dedicated USD Swift account in the name of their users—in the name of the users, not Standard Chartered or DBS.

Users can then transact through this account via Swift internationally, on a first-party basis. As long as the fund source is a bank account under their name, they can fund this account. Similarly, outgoing transfers must also go to a bank account in the same name.

This system operates 24/7 globally. When funds land in the account, they are automatically minted into XUSD—a regulated stablecoin out of Singapore with MAS oversight—and transmitted to the user’s destination address. The reverse process, for redemptions, works the same way.

So now, international platforms and exchanges can offer users a Tier 1 bank account to mint and redeem a US dollar stablecoin regulated by MAS.

That becomes the foundation for many applications to build on top of. It also helps address compliance pain points.

Now, because transfers into and out of these accounts are tied to real-name users, financial institutions—especially Tier 1 firms with strict AML policies—can easily verify counterparties and apply the necessary compliance requirements.

Compliance and Regulatory Support

Paulo: Yeah. So it’s really a compliance layer you’ve added to strengthen the connectivity between the Web3 aspects and traditional Web2 infrastructure like Swift.

And I think more institutions are starting to recognize the value of this.

There’s been a lot of recent news: Circle’s IPO, Stripe acquiring Bridge, Thailand’s Bridge project, and even Indonesia’s Project Garuda. I wanted to get your view, especially from the Indonesia side, on the value of these developments.

How do you see things from a regulatory and institutional standpoint in Indonesia when it comes to adopting these technologies?

Tianwei: I think one of the big things we’ve been seeing is that the next phase of growth in the stablecoin market—right now dominated by Tether and Circle—is global. Tether is mostly unregulated, while Circle claims to be regulated in the U.S.

The total stablecoin market today sits between $200 to $300 billion, depending on the data you look at. A recent Citibank report [00:10:00] projected this number will grow to $1.6 trillion by 2030—which isn’t that far off. We’re less than five years away from that, and it’s astonishing.

If you deep dive into the projection, you’ll realize that this growth cannot come solely from the crypto trading industry. The crypto market today, as of this morning, is around $3 trillion in total. So that $1.6 trillion can’t just be coming from trading.

The real adoption will come from mainstream use. This is where regulated issuers like us stand out. We’re backed by Q1 banking support, unlike even Circle in some cases. They don’t have that kind of direct banking support, and most stablecoin transactions happen on a peer-to-peer basis.

For example, today, you and I can’t just open an account with Tether, transfer money from our bank, and mint USDT directly. Likewise, there’s no straightforward way to redeem it. Circle has similar limitations because they also lack broad banking support from institutions like DBS, Standard Chartered, or JP Morgan—banks where most people actually keep their money.

That’s our clear differentiator. As a regulated stablecoin issuer with strong banking support, we’re able to offer a DVA (Dedicated Virtual Account) product. It gives users and corporates an account they can use to mint and transact using stablecoins through traditional infrastructure they’re already familiar with.

Hendra: I think the U.S. just passed the “Genius Act” in the Senate. What does that mean? It’s more than just a valuation driver. This new legislation will have ripple effects throughout the entire financial services industry.

We all know the U.S. is a frontrunner when it comes to adopting new technologies. Right now, AI is a big one. But with the GENESIS bill and these kinds of developments, we’re going to see a big wave hit financial services.

In the past, crypto has largely been seen as a tool for buying and selling digital assets. But over the next five years, what’s exciting is how crypto—especially stablecoins—will expand beyond just that. It’ll start to cover areas traditionally served by banks and neobanks.

Think about cross-border transfers between migrant workers and their families. Or think about travelers trying to spend money beyond their home currency. That’s already happening in pilots we’ve tested with Alipay and Reepay in Singapore.

Beyond that, there’s even more potential—things like tokenized deposits and payables. We’ve already piloted tokenized payables with Amazon.

If you zoom out, stablecoins can be seen as the new platform on which future banks—or neobank disruptors—will be built. That means the entire financial services industry will be rewritten.

And we believe the best platform for that future will be a regulated stablecoin, not something like Tether, which is good for crypto trading, but not for these real-world use cases.

That’s why we’re confident and excited about the future of StraitsX. We’re not just powerful because we’re listed on exchanges like Binance and Coinbase. We’re powerful because we’re regulated and positioned at the front seat of this expansion into real-world use cases.

Plus, we’ve already been operating in the real world for the past 10 years—doing payments for non-tech-savvy, underserved users.

Imagine putting this kind of stablecoin infrastructure in their hands. The possibilities are massive. That’s what excites us—not just Circle’s IPO or the Genius Act, but our ability to bring this infrastructure to everyday people in emerging markets like Indonesia.

Whether it’s village-level transactions or daily payments for meals, we’re building for that. Like Tianwei said, we’re now a global company. If we can bring this to Indonesia, there’s no reason we can’t take it worldwide—through partnerships and ecosystems.

So we see this as a huge opportunity, and we’re laser-focused on delivering on that.

Paulo: My follow-up question to that is: in creating this bridge to real-world use cases, is compliance the key competitive edge?

Is this really a “compliance-first” game—where the player who builds out the stack first wins? Or are there other moats that players like you might have as the stablecoin market grows toward $1.6 trillion by 2030?

Maybe both Hendra and Tianwei can weigh in.

Tianwei: I’ll jump in. I think Hendra would agree—we were just talking about this in the car earlier.

In fintech, the first thing you always need to solve is compliance. Licenses and regulatory compliance are long-term investments. They are not just boxes to check; they’re also a company’s moat.

But licenses alone are not enough. The true moat we’ve built over the last 10 years is distribution.

We’ve onboarded over 200,000 offline agents. We’ve enabled 35,000 merchants to accept scan-and-pay via our platform.

Being a payment infrastructure provider for the past decade gives us far more than licenses. We’ve built trust—with regulators, with financial institutions, and with customers.

Customers ask us: “Can I accept stablecoins?” “Can I pay with stablecoins?” “How fast will the payment arrive?” “How much will it cost?”

Stablecoins and this entire technology stack—they’re just tools to solve real problems. And what we’ve built is the infrastructure and momentum to put those tools to work over the next five years.

Paulo: Yeah, and I think “stablecoin” can sometimes be a misnomer in the context of this conversation. The word “coin” makes it sound like a token or digital asset.

But what you’re really building is a platform, a set of rails. There’s a little disconnect in how people imagine it.

Trust and Consumer Protection

Paulo: I also wanted to talk about StraitsX’s reputation in Singapore for compliance, fraud protection, and legal transparency.

Now that StraitsX is expanding globally, how do you scale this trust? How do you ensure consumer protections scale along with your growth?

Tianwei: Yeah, I think it comes back to what we just discussed—trust.

Even though people talk about blockchain as “trustless,” in the real world, people still trust people. They trust institutions. They trust track records.

So when people are thinking about who to entrust with their financial future, they look at history. They ask: Who runs this company? What has it done over the past 10 years?

That’s why we’ve invested so much into compliance—from passing MAS audits to supporting law enforcement investigations.

It’s also about having real human support. When things go wrong, customers don’t want to talk to software. They want to talk to someone who can fix it.

That’s why we’ve invested in customer support, training, and operations over the past decade.

As we scale globally, all of this forms the foundation that enables us to expand trustlessly and borderlessly. Blockchain gives us the rails, but trust is still built by the people and systems behind the scenes.

Conclusion and Future Outlook

Paulo: Final question before we wrap: As we look to 2030, what’s next for Fazz and StraitsX? Is the goal primarily to expand distribution—to reach more partners and users?

Hendra: I think it goes hand in hand.

First, there’s definitely a generational shift happening. Just like mobile technology replaced many incumbents, we believe stablecoins will do the same in financial services.

This isn’t about coins—it’s about how finance is delivered. In the past, the rise of Apple, Google Pay, and Amazon enabled neobanks like Nubank to disrupt the industry.

We think stablecoins are the next mobile revolution.

That means whoever controls the stablecoin infrastructure will control the future of banking. For us, that starts with making our own neobank—Fazz Financial—adapt and leverage this technology to grow distribution.

We’ve already seen how stablecoins offer better speed, lower fees, and greater accessibility. That’s a strong value proposition for underserved users.

Beyond our own ecosystem, many banks and financial institutions also want to tap into this infrastructure.

We want to be their infrastructure partner—helping them transition into this new, more efficient financial future.

That’s why we’ve been able to onboard players like KBank, Alipay, and Reepay.

So this goes hand in hand—our own neobank apps can grow, while partners can adopt our SDKs. That dual growth engine—differentiated product and distribution—is what gives us the momentum to lead.