SINGAPORE – Singapore's cryptocurrency industry is booming this week with major events in the city and a series of partnerships in areas including payments, stablecoins and combating cryptocurrency crime.
Singapore-based cryptocurrency payments company Triple A announced on Sept. 17, ahead of the cryptocurrency conference Token2049 and Stablecoin Summit, that cardholders at DCS Card Centres will be able to top up their virtual accounts with five digital assets starting this week.
The five are Bitcoin, Ether, Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC) and PayPal USD.
According to Triple A, there are more than 500 million cryptocurrency holders worldwide, with 24.4% of Singapore's population holding digital currencies, and demand for crypto payment options continues to grow.
In early 2024, ride-hailing service Grab partnered with Triple-A to introduce digital currency top-ups.
Another ride-hailing platform, Tada, has partnered with The Open Network (TON) Foundation to allow passengers to pay for rides with digital assets.
Tada has launched a Telegram mini-app called “Tada Mini,” which allows users to book rides directly within the messaging app Telegram, the two companies announced on September 12.
TON claims to be a separate entity from Telegram, but the partnership gives it access to the messaging app's 900 million monthly users.
Meanwhile, SC Ventures, the fintech investment and venture arm of Standard Chartered Bank, announced on September 17 that it had invested in European cryptocurrency exchange One Trading.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but One Trading said it would use the investment to support the launch of the country's first crypto perpetual futures contract under a European Union regulatory framework.
On Sept. 16, global payments company Circle announced it has partnered with Sony Block Solutions Labs to make a bridged version of stablecoin USDC available as the primary token on the Soneium blockchain.
The USDC issued by Circle is the original or native version.
A bridge version of USDC will be created by a third party, paving the way for USDC to be upgraded to a native version in the future.
