The Central Bank of Malaysia, also known as Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), announced that it will be running three pilot projects to test how a ringgit-backed stablecoin could be used for deposits and cross-border transactions. This pivotal move by the BNM comes in the wake of more than 49 countries, including China and India, testing the tokenization of their respective currencies.
Tagging along with the trend of many countries trying to tokenize their native currencies, the BNM announced the launch of three initiatives. One of the initiatives explores enterprise settlement using Ringgit stablecoins; the other will test how cross-border transactions and payments would work, and the last initiative would be how domestic payments could be carried out on-chain.
Standard Chartered and Capital A collaborate
Standard Chartered Bank and Capital A will test how enterprise settlement using Ringgit stablecoin would work. Maybank will explore how domestic payment applications—on-chain bank deposits—work, while CIMB will explore cross-border payment and how Islamic law would be compliant with this.
Analyst Lavneet Bansal stated that Bank Negara Malaysia is moving carefully and in phases. The three projects approved under the Digital Asset Innovation Hub focus on wholesale B2B settlement, not retail use. At the same time, reports that BNM has received 30–35 stablecoin applications show strong market interest in ringgit-based digital money, he mentioned.
Jamaica’s central bank digital currency (JMYR) launch last year highlights that private players are willing to move faster, but it sits outside the clearly named central bank pilots.
Malaysia tests the stablecoin under a controlled environment
“Overall, this looks less like a rush to launch a public stablecoin and more like a controlled learning process around risk, governance, and settlement efficiency.”
Analyst Lavneet Bansal
Talking at an interview, hedge fund manager Ray Dalio mentioned that although there is a great deal of liking for a Central Bank Digital Currency, however, once it is issued, “there will be no privacy, and it will be a very effective controlling mechanism by the government.”
