Malaysia just put a uniquely local stamp on the global stablecoin race. The country’s royal-backed ringgit stablecoin, RMJDT, has been launched by Bullish Aim Sdn Bhd, a company chaired and owned by Tunku Ismail Ibni Sultan Ibrahim, the regent of Johor. Issued on the Zetrix blockchain and rolled out under Malaysia’s regulated sandbox, RMJDT is designed for payments and cross-border settlement around the ringgit rather than a U.S. dollar peg.
What RMJDT actually is
RMJDT is pegged 1:1 to the Malaysian ringgit (MYR) and operates on Zetrix, a Malaysian layer-1 that underpins the national Malaysia Blockchain Infrastructure. According to the official launch materials and local media coverage, the project sits inside Bank Negara Malaysia’s regulatory sandbox and aims to expand the ringgit’s use in cross-border trade settlement—a very different goal from dollar stablecoins used mainly for crypto trading.
Several outlets report that backing will include ringgit cash deposits and short-term Malaysian government bonds, aligning the reserves with local-currency instruments. The initiative also introduced a related digital asset treasury plan to seed Zetrix ecosystem activity—starting with RM500 million worth of Zetrix tokens, per company statements.
Why it matters: a local-currency stablecoin anchored to domestic rails could make it easier for Malaysian businesses to settle invoices and manage working capital in MYR, while keeping supervisory oversight at home rather than offshore. That’s the broader theme running across Asia right now.
A regional shift: tokenized money under clearer rules
Hong Kong has already moved from consultation to a live licensing regime for stablecoin issuers (effective 1 August 2025). Anyone conducting regulated stablecoin activity must be licensed by the HKMA under the new Stablecoins Ordinance, with prudential and disclosure requirements set out in detail. It’s a clear signal that regulated, fiat-redeemable stablecoins are meant to sit inside the financial system, not outside it.
Singapore finalized a dedicated framework for single-currency stablecoins (SCS) back in August 2023—covering reserve quality, redemption timelines, disclosures, and capital—then said in 2025 it would bring draft legislation and expand tokenization pilots, including tokenized MAS bills and wholesale CBDC experiments. This is the same direction of travel: stablecoins with sound backing and redemption serving real settlement use cases.
Japan is moving in parallel but via its banking sector. The FSA has endorsed a joint pilot by the country’s three megabanks (MUFG, SMBC, and Mizuho) to issue yen-denominated stablecoins for corporate and cross-border payments, following a legal framework that allows banks and trust banks to issue regulated stablecoins. Reuters has separately reported on bank-backed and startup-issued yen stablecoins rolling out in late 2025.
Together, these moves form a pattern: Asia is bringing stablecoins on-ledger but under the umbrella of banking and payments law, often with central banks or financial regulators explicitly guiding the process.
How Malaysia’s approach fits in
Malaysia’s sandbox lets firms test digital-asset products under close supervision, including ringgit-backed stablecoins. The RMJDT launch sits squarely in that model and has already pulled in regional attention—media in Singapore and Malaysia emphasize its payments and trade-settlement focus, not speculative use.
The project’s Zetrix choice matters too. By anchoring the token to a domestic L1 tied to government digital-service infrastructure, the issuer can align throughput, compliance tooling, and data residency with local policy. For cross-border corridors, that could later interoperate with other regulated networks as jurisdictions harmonize standards.
Separately, the Capital A–Standard Chartered announcement—an LOI to explore a ringgit stablecoin inside Bank Negara’s Digital Asset Innovation Hub—shows incumbent aviation, fintech, and banking players are preparing to use such rails if policy greenlights them. That’s a strong demand signal beyond crypto-native circles.
The bigger picture: why local-currency stablecoins now?
- On-chain settlement for real commerce. Asia’s trade-heavy economies need instant, final settlement across time zones. Local-currency tokens minimize FX spillover and accounting complexity for domestic firms, while still enabling programmable workflows. Hong Kong’s licensing and Singapore’s SCS regime are explicitly designed with payments and tokenized assets in mind.
- Regulatory clarity. Instead of “let a thousand coins bloom,” regulators are creating permissioned perimeters: who may issue, what backs the token, how fast redemptions must occur, and how reserves are held. That clarity lowers adoption risk for banks, PSPs, and corporates.
- Interoperability with tokenized finance. With tokenized money-market funds and tokenized deposits gaining steam, a regulated stablecoin becomes the cash leg for everything from repo to supply-chain finance—something Singapore is actively piloting and global banks are building toward.
The takeaway
Malaysia’s RMJDT isn’t just another token; it’s a case study in local-currency stablecoins being built inside regulatory frameworks to solve payments, trade, and treasury problems—not just crypto trading spreads. Coupled with Hong Kong’s licensing, Singapore’s SCS rulebook, and Japan’s bank-led pilots, Asia is laying down a blueprint for tokenized money that is redeemable, supervised, and built for real-economy settlement.