How Regulated Stablecoins Power Institutional Settlement

The institutional finance world is undergoing a quiet revolution. Beneath the surface of headlines about tokenisation, digital assets, and the likes of CBDCs, perhaps a more pragmatic, immediate force is reshaping the way value moves globally: regulated stablecoins.

Once viewed primarily as tools for speculation or retail payments, stablecoins have rapidly matured into foundational infrastructure for institutions that demand speed, transparency, compliance, and control. What’s emerging is an evolved financial architecture; built not just on faster rails, but on programmable, interoperable, and always-on money.

At StraitsX, we are observing that regulated stablecoins are fast becoming the default instrument for settlement and treasury operations in digital finance; across FX flows, cross-border commerce, liquidity provisioning, and institutional onboarding.

Stablecoin rails: Instant, final, and global

Traditional financial settlement is riddled with frictions, where cross-border wires can take days, cutoff timings depending on banking hours, and with operational overheads ballooning with every intermediary introduced to the chain. By contrast, stablecoins offer a radically different model that eliminates these inefficiencies and unlocks new advantages:

• Instant settlement: Transactions clear in seconds, 24/7, through the year.
• Finality: Once confirmed on-chain, transfers are irreversible and timestamped.
• Global reach: A single stablecoin token can move between jurisdictions without passing through a web of correspondent banks.

These benefits make stablecoins an ideal solution for enterprises looking to modernise their financial operations while maintaining precision and control. Learn more about how stablecoins can be used for businesses.

Market Maker Liquidity

For market makers operating across multiple exchanges, speed and timing are essential; and waiting T+2 for settlement or relying on legacy FX rails can tie up working capital and increase risk. Instead, stablecoins like XUSD and XSGD offer always-on liquidity. A market maker can rebalance positions in real time across global venues without being constrained by cut-off windows or currency holidays

Exchange & Platform Settlement

Emerging use cases like Dedicated Virtual Accounts (DVA/+) by StraitsX allow exchanges, wallet players and other fintech platforms to settle fiat and stablecoins in a unified, compliant flow. Institutions receive named, segregated virtual accounts that connect seamlessly between them and their end-users, all via an on-chain stablecoin infrastructure. This reduces reconciliation overhead, enhances transparency, and also allows platforms to operate with the efficiency of stablecoin infrastructure without sacrificing regulatory clarity.

Programmable money: A new OS for Finance

Stablecoins aren’t just faster—they’re programmable. That means institutions can build rules, workflows, and logic directly into how money moves. 

In traditional finance, initiating a treasury payout or triggering a trade requires middleware: file uploads, batch processing, manual approvals. With programmable stablecoins, the money itself can follow logic defined by smart contracts or APIs.

Treasury & Payout Automation

A fintech platform can automate just-in-time payouts to vendors or workers. Using APIs, stablecoins can be sent instantly when a task is completed, a milestone is met, or a smart contract is triggered.

This is especially valuable for platforms operating across time zones and jurisdictions; eliminating business hours or batch limits.

On-Chain FX & Cross-Border Logic

Programmability also enables more efficient FX flows. For example, a protocol or institution can automatically swap XSGD to USDC when SGD reserves exceed a threshold, using on-chain liquidity pools. This reduces FX risk, minimises idle capital, and allows treasuries to operate in real time.

At StraitsX, we’re seeing demand for programmable flows across:

• Merchant settlements in multi-currency regions
• Streaming payments imbued compliance checks
• Conditional payouts for B2B settlement

This marks a departure from mere "faster payments" to programmable finance, where logic lives in the rail, not outside it.

Regulation, Transparency, and Trust: The Institutional Mandate

Speed and programmability mean little without trust. For institutions, compliance remains a foundational backbone of day-to-day operations. That’s why regulated, fully backed stablecoins are gaining traction while unregulated alternatives are being phased out by both regulators and enterprises.

At StraitsX, our stablecoins XUSD and XSGD are:

• Fully asset-backed 1:1 with fiat reserves
• Issued by regulated entities under Singapore's Payment Services Act and recognised to be in early compliance with Singapore’s upcoming Single-Currency Stablecoin regulatory framework
• Audited regularly for transparency and assurance

This regulated framework ensures institutions can integrate stablecoins into existing compliance workflows with confidence. From KYC to transaction monitoring to audit trails, regulated stablecoins bridge the world of blockchain and traditional finance.

Enterprise-Grade Control

We’re also seeing increasing demand for permissioned environments where institutions can control issuance, redemption, and transfer logic. Our enterprise-grade stablecoin layer enables businesses to:

• Enforce wallet whitelisting
• Set transactional limits
• Integrate with compliance engines

This is crucial for entities operating in regulated industries—such as finance, e-commerce, or cross-border trade, where internal policies are as important as external regulations.

A Settlement Layer for the Digital Economy

We believe stablecoins are becoming the settlement layer of the digital economy. Like cloud computing transformed software delivery, programmable, regulated stablecoins are transforming how money is issued, moved, and managed globally.

This shift toward regulated, programmable stablecoins is no longer conceptual, and has been put into practice since.

Alipay+ x GrabPay in Singapore

Through StraitsX infrastructure, Alipay+ wallet users can now pay seamlessly at GrabPay merchants across Singapore. Behind the scenes, stablecoin-based settlement abstracts away the complexity of QR code fragmentation, FX, and reconciliation.

To the user, it feels like any other digital payment. To the merchant, it feels like business as usual. That’s the power of stablecoin-native infrastructure done right.

DVA/+ for Exchanges and Fintech Platforms

Our DVA+ solution enables crypto exchanges, wallets, and fintech platforms to access named USD virtual accounts with institutional-grade compliance. These accounts are linked directly to stablecoin issuance and redemption flows—removing the need for intermediaries or patchwork banking setups.

In practice, this gives platforms:

• Faster user onboarding
• Real-time treasury flows
• Greater control over compliance and reconciliation

In the coming years, we expect:

• Wider integration of stablecoin APIs into treasury and ERP systems
• Greater regulatory clarity supporting regulated issuers
• Interoperability across chains to unlock new corridors and use cases

StraitsX is committed to leading this transition—not as an app, not as a consumer wallet, but as the programmable, trusted infrastructure layer institutions can build on.

We already support billions in on-chain transactions annually and are working with some of the largest platforms, payment networks, and Web3 protocols across Asia and beyond.

The future of finance is not just digital. It’s programmable, transparent, and always-on. And stablecoins, when built on a regulated, purpose-built infrastructure—are what will power it.

StraitsX is proud to be building that foundation.