Stablecoins Pegged to Local Currencies Will Pave the Way to Mass Adoption of Blockchain Technology in Southeast Asia, Says Coinbase Executive

At present, Coinbase Exchange has no plans to enter Southeast Asian jurisdictions, but its wallet business as well as its blockchain platform Base are aiming to reach mass markets

Coinbase is aiming to reach mass markets in Southeast Asia through its wallet business and blockchain platform Base, enabling local developers to build products that will eventually support baht and peso stablecoins.

At present, Coinbase Exchange has no plans to enter Southeast Asian jurisdictions. However, Base, a second layer on top of the Ethereum blockchain where developers can create apps and process transactions, is aiming to reach mass markets in Thailand and the Philippines.

“When you bring a local currency ‘onchain,’ it solves a few problems,†said Jesse Pollak, founder of Base and head of Coinbase Wallet, referring to transactions that are processed on a blockchain. “One, it makes it easier for people to onboard without the complexity of changing your worldview about money. If you have a Thai baht stablecoin, it’s literally the same money but just faster, cheaper, and easier to use.â€

Speaking to Nikkei Asia after visiting Thailand for the Southeast Asian leg of Devcon, an expo organized by Ethereum, Pollak highlighted the potential for stablecoins to modernize legacy payment systems in the region.

At Devcon, non-Thai participants were able to convert dollar stablecoins to baht stablecoins without foreign exchange fees and make payments through Rubie, a new stablecoin wallet from Siam Commercial Bank built on Base. Pollak said SCB would assess the pilot with regulators in order to secure approval for a full rollout.

Thailand pioneered digital payments in Southeast Asia with PromptPay, the government-backed QR code payments system. But only Thai nationals or foreign residents with local bank accounts can use the system, leaving out the nearly 30 million tourists that visit Thailand each year.

“You want to grow the economy, but when you have tourists or folks who are traveling for work, they are locked out of those best-in-class systems and have to resort to converting their cash into Thai baht and paying a fee,†Pollak said. “That’s actually a pretty difficult challenge right now that stablecoins can help to overcome.â€

Pollak added that Base is looking to hire country leads in Thailand and the Philippines to work with developers, content creators, regulators, and mass market users of its apps and wallet.

While interest in cryptocurrencies is high among Thai retail investors seeking greater returns than traditional assets and securities, many suffered losses in the crypto crash of 2022 that felled Zipmex, which had been the country’s second largest exchange. The exchange was replaced last year by Binance, Coinbase’s global rival, which secured its first digital asset exchange license in Southeast Asia from Thailand.

“If you look at the history of crypto, it has been very speculative,†Pollak said. “When things are going up, there’s a lot of positive energy, but if things go down, negativity and fear proliferates. So one of the biggest things we’re focused on is shifting it so it’s not about speculation, but about utility.â€