Malaysia launches Digital Asset Innovation Hub to speed up growth of fintech and blockchain

Business Times

17-06-2025

[KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysia unveiled its Digital Asset Innovation Hub on Tuesday (Jun 17), with an eye on accelerating growth in the digital economy, particularly in the digital finance sector.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, in his speech at the event, described it as the beginning of a new chapter, 'one that calls for deeper collaboration between regulators and industry players'.
The innovation hub, unveiled at the Sasana Symposium 2025, aims to provide a controlled environment – a regulatory sandbox – for local and international fintech and digital-asset firms to test their products and services.
The symposium on Jun 17 and 18 homes in on pressing economic issues and policy reforms and is hosted by Bank Negara Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. The participants include policymakers, industry leaders, academics and the business community who are taking part in discussions and workshops.
The sandbox-like setup of the hub is aimed at ensuring regulatory compliance and relevance to Malaysia's evolving digital economy.
Anwar said the hub would be a key catalyst for innovation, enable use cases such as programmable payments, ringgit-backed stablecoins and supply chain financing.
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'Our ambition is clear – to align infrastructure, policy and talent, across both the public and private sectors, in pursuit of a digitally capable, future-ready Malaysia,' he said.
Further details on the programme were not disclosed.
The move underscores Malaysia's broader ambitions to position itself as a regional fintech hub. In April, Anwar met with Binance founder Changpeng Zhao to discuss the country's potential in the cryptocurrency space.
Zhao pleaded guilty to US money laundering violations in 2023, and was reprimanded by Malaysia in 2021. By the following year, however, Binance had secured a regulated presence in Malaysia through its minority stake in MX Global, operating under local oversight.
Anwar said that Malaysia is charting a bold course in digital transformation, guided by national strategies such as the Digital Economy Blueprint, the Financial Sector Blueprint and the Capital Market Masterplan.
Ensuring stability amid rapid evolution
Malaysia is charting a bold course in digital transformation, guided by national strategies such as the Digital Economy Blueprint, the Financial Sector Blueprint and the Capital Market Masterplan. PHOTO: BT FILE
Bank Negara governor Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour, in his opening remarks, said as a steward of financial stability, the central bank acknowledges the rapid evolution of the digital asset landscape, so it is pursuing digitalisation to ensure Malaysia's financial system remains fit-for-purpose and capable of serving the national economy.
He added: 'From the modernisation of Rentas, our payment systems infrastructure, to the expansion of cross-border payment linkages, and now, the exploration of asset tokenisation and other digital solutions, we aim to build a strong foundation for an adaptive and resilient economy.'
Thailand's digital-asset sandbox programmes
In a panel discussion on the future of digital assets held on the opening day of the symposium, Naphongthawat Phothikit, senior director of payment systems and financial technology policy department at Bank of Thailand, shared insights on Thailand's digital asset regulatory sandbox programmes and how these have helped fintech companies enhance their marketability while ensuring security.
Thailand launched its Digital Asset Sandbox last August, he said. There are two types of sandbox programmes: The first enables service providers to offer conventional financial services using new technologies; the other sandbox will be for unregulated activities, particularly in payments involving stablecoins.
Banks testing the use of cryptocurrencies (such as stablecoins) for cross-border fund transfers, for example, would use the first type of sandbox for their trial runs. While their customers still transact in fiat currency, the use of cryptocurrencies would mitigate the risk of price fluctuations and ensures that customers receive the full transferred amount, said Phothikit.
(Transactions between Thai and US banks use USDC, a stablecoin with its value pegged to the US dollar.)
Another use case entails private-sector banks developing blockchain networks to streamline bond issuance. Through blockchain, they can effortlessly calculate principal and interest, using e-money for payments to bondholders.
'These examples demonstrate the application of new technology within traditional business models,' he added.
Referring to the sandbox for unregulated activities, particularly in payments involving stablecoins, he said: 'We have regulations that require stablecoins to be pegged to the Thai baht, but they are not listed on secondary markets.'
The sandbox provides a controlled environment to test the functionality and safety of these payment solutions before they are introduced to the wider market, he added.