Singapore reclaimed its position as the largest crypto economy in Central & Southern Asia and Oceania (CSAO), with total transaction volume rising 55.4% year-over-year to $284 billion in the twelve months ending June 2026, according to Chainalysis. Institutional-facing platforms processed $60 billion, a 94% rebound, while the wider CSAO crypto economy contracted 6.8%. Chainalysis noted that growth came from existing participants such as market makers, OTC desks, and institutional brokers rather than new entrants.
The rebound coincided with stricter Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) rules, including a 2025 licensing requirement for local entities serving overseas clients. StraitsX CEO Tianwei Liu said the framework curtailed retail speculation and favored banks and institutions with commercial distributed ledger technology implementations. Singapore's Project BLOOM continued evaluating supervised stablecoins and tokenized commercial bank money; Ripple joined on March 25, 2026 to trial cross-border trade finance transfers using RLUSD. MAS is expected to release additional guidelines on foreign-issued stablecoins in Q4 2026.
Elsewhere in CSAO, retail P2P transfers dominated in the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. The three countries recorded 5.4 million P2P transactions under $10,000 between July 2025 and June 2026, equal to 14.4% of the global total despite representing only 2.5% of global crypto market. The average transaction was $618, about half the global average. Thailand reported $10.4 billion in domestic stablecoin movement, mostly USDT, while Vietnam recorded $6.9 billion. Cross-border stablecoin flows outpaced domestic payments by 3.2 times.
India led the region in centralized exchange inflows with $88.4 billion, ahead of Singapore's $82.3 billion, Australia's $79.3 billion, and Vietnam's $69.8 billion, even though India's total crypto economy contracted 14.7% to $135 billion. Domestic exchanges captured just 0.7% of Indian exchange volume, compared with around 7% across the rest of CSAO. CoinSwitch co-founder Ashish Singhal said crypto in India is predominantly an investable asset, with investors aged 35 and above entering the market. Mudrex CEO Edul Patel said user mindset is shifting from flipping to accumulation, with crypto held alongside equities, gold, and mutual funds.
Indian regulators have tightened oversight on offshore platforms and OTC trades, including Financial Intelligence Unit notices to 15 offshore exchanges and stricter KYC requirements. The country taxes crypto gains at 30% and applies a 1% tax deducted at source, factors that have pushed activity away from domestic exchanges.
