When tourists from Bangkok pay in Singapore using their Thai e-wallets, the ease of the transaction often goes unnoticed, yet it is powered by the infrastructure laid down by Singapore-based StraitsX. The company has positioned itself as a leader in the stablecoin payment ecosystem, reporting a remarkable surge in its card transaction volume, which increased by 40 times between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the same period in 2025. Co-founder and CEO Tianwei Liu shared this significant data with CoinDesk. Alongside this impressive growth in transaction volume, the number of cards issued soared by an astonishing 83-fold.
These figures, while compelling, are set against the backdrop of a relatively low baseline of activity from a major partnership with RedotPay that only soft-launched in late 2024. The broader crypto card industry is expanding rapidly; estimates from Artemis Analytics suggest that global monthly transaction volumes have skyrocketed from around $100 million in early 2023 to more than $1.5 billion by late 2025, representing a compound annual growth rate of 106%. This indicates that StraitsX is not only outperforming but also benefitting from an overall rising market trend.
Further amplifying this trend, Dune Analytics reported that total spending with crypto cards tracked on-chain experienced a dramatic increase of 420% in 2025, jumping from approximately $23 million in January to around $120 million by December. Visa has emerged as a dominant force in this space, accounting for over 90% of the on-chain card volume. The spending linked to Visa’s stablecoin cards achieved a remarkable annualized run rate of $3.5 billion by the end of 2025, reflecting a 460% year-over-year growth.
In the arena of card processing, StraitsX’s major partner, RedotPay, managed to handle over $2.95 billion in card volume in 2025—more than four times that of its closest 13 competitors. This positions StraitsX’s infrastructure as a cornerstone of the growing stablecoin card market.
Despite these remarkable early-stage metrics, questions remain about the sustainability of such growth as the novelty of stablecoin transactions evolves, especially with the impending competition focusing on features, rewards, and cost efficiency.
StraitsX’s model primarily operates below the surface. By acting as a Visa BIN sponsor, it enables partners such as RedotPay and UPay to issue cards, allowing seamless and real-time transactions. Liu emphasizes that consumers don’t necessarily care whether they are using stablecoins or traditional currency; their primary concern is ensuring the payment is successful. This philosophy shapes StraitsX’s approach, aiming to make the stablecoin infrastructure nearly invisible.
As part of its growth strategy, StraitsX anticipates the launch of its two stablecoins, XSGD and XUSD, on the Solana blockchain by the end of March. This deployment, carried out in partnership with the Solana Foundation, will be significant as it represents the first time both tokens will operate natively on a high-speed blockchain, supporting the x402 standard designed for machine-to-machine micropayments. Liu notes that as transaction fees approach zero, the capacity to conduct small, frequent payments will revolutionize how transactions are incorporated into applications.
In Southeast Asia, XSGD currently commands over 70% of the non-USD stablecoin market and maintains a 1:1 peg with the Singapore dollar, backed by monthly audits. This peg has gained additional relevance in recent months as the Singapore dollar reached an 11-year high against the U.S. dollar.
Looking ahead, StraitsX is expanding its reach beyond Singapore. Under Project BLOOM, a cross-border payment system with Thailand is set to launch, allowing Thai travelers to use KBank’s Q Wallet for transactions in Singapore, facilitating real-time conversions between Thailand’s Q-money and XSGD, effectively streamlining payments without the users even noticing it.
Liu draws parallels to the successful integrations of offerings like GrabPay and Alipay+, which were user-friendly and required minimal retraining for consumers. As a result, StraitsX has reported a 400% increase in merchant transaction volume and a sixfold rise in unique users engaging with merchants on a month-over-month basis. Similar expansions into markets like Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong are on the horizon.
Visa, a key partner in StraitsX’s operations, views the transition to stablecoin-backed cards as a natural progression in the payment industry. Adeline Kim, Visa’s Singapore and Brunei country manager, remarked that the customer experience remains unchanged, as these cards function like traditional ones, complete with familiar features such as chargeback protections.
This growth trajectory fits a broader pattern visible across the sector, with full-stack crypto card issuers like Rain and Reap rapidly scaling operations, providing their own settlements and managing substantial transaction volumes.
An essential use case for stablecoins is in remittances, where traditional international transfer costs can be burdensome. The World Bank indicates that sending $200 internationally incurs an average fee of 6.49%, a figure that stablecoins could significantly reduce.
As Liu envisions the future, he hopes for a world where the most effective stablecoin infrastructure is so seamlessly integrated that it becomes invisible to users. The goal is a payment system that simply works—a transaction that occurs effortlessly in the background.
