cross-border

According to the Nikkei, SWIFT has launched a pilot project in collaboration with 17 banks including Citigroup, Mitsubishi UFJ, Wells Fargo, Bank of New York Mellon, UBS, and BNP Paribas to test tokenized deposit cross-border payments.The goal of this pilot is to achieve 24/7 instant transfers between different banks and reduce the cost of cross-border payments.

The 26th China International Investment and Trade Fair recently opened in Xiamen. Under the guidance of the People's Bank of China, Bank of Communications officially released a cross-border trade service plan based on the "Digital Currency Bridge" (CBETS) blockchain infrastructure, focusing on cross-border trade settlement and compliance needs, enhancing the collaborative efficiency of capital flow, information flow, and document flow through on-chain rights confirmation, smart contracts, and other means.The plan relies on Digital Currency Bridge to support multi-party participation and data sharing, providing services such as cross-border payment and trade background verification for import and export enterprises, financial institutions, and regulatory departments, aiming to reduce compliance costs, shorten settlement cycles, and reserve expansion space for the digital renminbi and cross-border financial infrastructure integration.

According to CoinDesk, U.S. Bank, the fifth largest commercial bank in the United States (a subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp), announced the successful completion of a real-time cross-border payment test based on its own US dollar stablecoin USBDC, with transactions completed via the Stellar blockchain between its entities in North America and Europe. As one of the first bank-issued stablecoins deployed on a public blockchain, USBDC is expected to bridge the gap in the global banking system with 24/7 trading capabilities.The pilot validated the functions of USBDC, including minting, payment redemption, freezing, and recovery, and tested the bank's internally developed digital asset platform, which serves as the foundation for issuing, managing, and transferring tokenized assets, enabling seamless integration between traditional banking infrastructure and blockchain networks. U.S. Bank Chairman and CEO Gunjan Kedia stated that this real-time pilot demonstrates its ability to accelerate global cash management and fund flows.This test is based on the bank's strategic partnership with the Stellar Development Foundation, with future application scenarios including liquidity management, collateral transfer, and cross-border financial operations. As global stablecoin regulation advances, banks are accelerating their entry into the market. Last week, 21 financial institutions, including Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, and UBS, announced plans to form a company to issue stablecoins, with the expectation of launching a dollar token in the first half of 2027.

According to CoinDesk, Citibank will launch an international transfer service based on tokenized deposits for Japanese companies by the end of the year, enabling 24/7 instant cross-border payments between five countries, becoming the first foreign bank to offer this service in Japan.

Iran is gradually relaxing foreign exchange controls and allowing companies to use Tether (USDT) and Bitcoin for cross-border transactions. According to informed sources, the Central Bank of Iran has encouraged companies in recent months to repatriate overseas funds through local cryptocurrency exchanges, and companies can also exchange foreign currency in the open market, using export revenue directly for imported goods. An executive close to the Iranian regime stated that the central bank is currently not questioning the methods of fund transfer, and using cryptocurrency to receive export payments has become the norm.Data shows that approximately $10 billion worth of cryptocurrency will flow through Iran by 2025, and blockchain analytics firm Elliptic estimates that Iran accounts for about 4.5% of global Bitcoin mining activity. There are still over $100 billion in undeclared overseas and domestic earnings within Iran, with more than 20,000 individuals and companies failing to fulfill their obligation to repatriate approximately €94 billion in export revenue. Tether had previously frozen about $344 million in wallet assets related to the Central Bank of Iran, and the U.S. Treasury has also warned that engaging in digital asset transactions with Iran may face sanction risks.

DBS and Citibank's New York office completed a cross-border payment in US dollars between Singapore and the United States on September 5 using tokenized deposits through the Swift Digital Ledger. The transaction was executed over the weekend and took only a few minutes, while traditional cross-border payments typically take up to two business days, allowing businesses to avoid losing time due to time zone differences and weekend gaps. This is the second confirmed real-time application of the ledger, following HSBC and Standard Chartered's completion of the first real-time tokenized deposit cross-border transaction in August. Swift announced the ledger's preliminary availability on July 9, with 17 banks ready to pilot it, and DBS is the only bank headquartered in Asia among the 12 core design group members. DBS Group Chief Operating Officer Rachel Chew stated that the Swift Digital Ledger is connecting traditional banking infrastructure with emerging digital networks to drive the practical application of tokenized currency from experimentation. Citibank's Head of South Asia Services Mridula Iyer noted that weekend real-time transactions prove that around-the-clock cross-border payments have become a reality. DBS will launch DBS Token Services in 2024, offering 24/7 programmable instant value transfer services.

Circle announced that it has signed a final agreement to acquire Tazapay, a B2B cross-border payment infrastructure company headquartered in Singapore. The transaction is expected to be completed in 2027, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, including approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.Tazapay has an annualized payment volume of over $25 billion, more than 60 banking and fintech partners, and local payment channels covering over 100 markets. Approximately 60% of Tazapay's transaction volume includes stablecoins.

According to Cointelegraph, DBS Bank has partnered with Citibank to utilize a blockchain-based ledger from Swift to achieve instant, round-the-clock cross-border dollar payments through tokenized deposits.

According to Cointelegraph, the stablecoin payment company Kast has launched the KAST Business platform, integrating features such as corporate accounts, payment cards, cross-border transfers, and stablecoin yield balances. The platform provides services through stablecoin infrastructure.Kast stated that businesses can receive payments through fiat virtual accounts provided by regulated partners, deposit supported stablecoins and crypto assets, issue virtual cards, and make local payments in over 20 currencies.The platform's services cover more than 170 countries and regions, but specific availability varies by jurisdiction. Idle balances earn an annual yield of up to 8%, and there is also a cashback of up to 3% on spending.Kast is a fintech company rather than a bank, and regulated services are provided by licensed partner institutions. Kast completed a $80 million financing in March at a valuation of $600 million, which will be used for product development, licensing acquisition, and expanding into North America, Latin America, and the Middle East markets. The company claims to currently have over 1 million users and plans to attract 1,000 to 5,000 active businesses by the end of 2026.

According to Bloomberg, the stablecoin cross-border remittance startup Felix Pago announced the completion of a $200 million Series B funding round.This round of financing includes $87 million in equity financing and $113 million in credit line financing. The equity financing was co-invested by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), while the credit line financing comes from General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund.Felix Pago is currently one of the most representative stablecoin remittance networks in Latin America, primarily using WhatsApp as the front-end entry point, and leveraging USDC and blockchain as the underlying settlement infrastructure, significantly reducing the cost and time for cross-border remittances from the United States to Mexico.

According to Cointelegraph, Russia's legal framework for cryptocurrency trading, custody, and cross-border settlements officially came into effect today.

IMF President Georgieva stated at the Jackson Hole annual meeting that stablecoins and tokenization could enhance global financial liquidity, making large cross-border payments cheaper and faster; however, stablecoins could also exacerbate currency substitution, capital flows, and exchange rate volatility, while undermining capital controls and monetary sovereignty. Dollar stablecoins may expand the global network effect of the dollar and marginally reduce U.S. financing costs, but they cannot replace fiscal discipline.This year's Jackson Hole Global Central Bank Annual Meeting has revealed three clear institutional divergences: BIS leans towards "marginalization of stablecoins, centralization of tokenized deposits"; ECB leans towards "central bank currencies on-chain"; while IMF acknowledges the real efficiency of stablecoins in cross-border payments but emphasizes the risks of currency substitution and capital flows in emerging markets. This has more policy implications than simply "supporting or opposing stablecoins."

The Public Security Bureau of Hongkou District, Shanghai, China, recently solved a case involving cross-border illegal settlement and illegal foreign exchange trading using virtual currency, arresting 9 criminal suspects and involving an amount of over 200 million yuan. The suspects, including a person named Li, established a technology company at the beginning of 2024 to seek illegal profits, building two platforms online: "Cross-Border Fund Exchange" and "Virtual Credit Card Issuance and Settlement." They solicited customers both online and offline, illegally conducting exchange and settlement services for virtual currency and cross-border funds, profiting through transaction fees, service fees, card issuance fees, withdrawal fees, and other means.Investigators stated, "The uniqueness of this case lies in the fact that the criminals developed two apps and publicly solicited customers on such a large scale, which has never been seen before. The platforms built in this case are themselves a closed-loop illegal financial service system, with all transactions settled internally on the platform. This mode of crime has a higher degree of scale, a longer chain, and is more deceptive." Reports indicate that on the "Cross-Border Fund Exchange" platform, the criminal gang collected customers' virtual currency overseas and exchanged it for foreign currency, forming a "fund pool," and then realized cross-border settlement through fabricated contracts, achieving the exchange and transfer of virtual currency to RMB. On the "Virtual Credit Card Issuance and Settlement" platform, the criminal gang "cooperated" with several overseas private banks to issue virtual credit cards to customers, who could use the card for consumption, but the repayment process had to be settled in virtual currency; the gang exchanged virtual currency for foreign currency overseas, relying on false cross-border settlements to complete clearing with overseas card merchants.

The Shanghai Public Security Bureau reported the investigation and resolution of a major underground money laundering case involving cross-border currency exchange using virtual currency, arresting more than 70 criminal suspects, with the amount involved exceeding 20 billion yuan.

Jeonbuk Bank has partnered with blockchain payment company Ripple to deploy its cross-border payment system, providing faster and cheaper remittance services for business clients such as import and export companies, tech startups, and online content creators, replacing the traditional transfer method that takes several days via the SWIFT network.Meanwhile, the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) has opened the application portal for crypto licenses. Companies providing virtual asset services on or before March 5 must submit a No Objection Certificate (NOC) application by September 5, or they will cease operations. PVARA stated that the licensing window is officially open, providing a clear path for businesses to enter Pakistan's regulated virtual asset market.In addition, Laser Digital, a digital asset subsidiary of Nomura Group in Japan, has received approval from the Financial Services Agency (FSA) to become the first platform to obtain a crypto exchange license in four years, the last being Binance Japan in October 2022.

WasabiCard's global remittance service supports over 30 fiat currencies, providing cross-border payment and bulk fund distribution capabilities for businesses, fintech platforms, and internet-native enterprises. Eligible payment channels support real-time or T+0 settlement.This service uses stablecoins as the funding allocation and settlement layer, connecting the traditional banking system with local payment networks. After completing the necessary KYC/KYB verification, users can deposit USDT into their WasabiCard accounts and exchange USDT for their chosen fiat currency through the global remittance feature, which is then transferred in real-time to the user's personal bank card account with the same name. In scenarios of corporate fund management and fund collection, eligible businesses can also use corporate bank accounts for receiving payments.Businesses can initiate payments to employees, contractors, suppliers, creators, affiliate partners, and platform merchants through a unified management backend or API. Core capabilities include bulk payments, smart routing, transparent exchange rates and fees, payment status tracking, and financial reconciliation.

According to ChianCatcher news, OKX founder Star tweeted that the team completed a significant engineering milestone last week, successfully migrating a high-traffic core trading system from one country to another with zero user-visible downtime. The only impact was a temporary increase in latency of about 30-40 minutes. The team believes this may be the first achievement of its kind in the industry at this scale. Migrating a key trading system while maintaining uninterrupted service, data integrity, and trading continuity is extremely challenging.