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Bank Negara Malaysia has onboarded three initiatives into its Digital Asset Innovation Hub (DAIH) to test ringgit stablecoin and tokenised deposit use cases in a controlled environment, with a focus on wholesale payments and settlement of tokenised assets, according to reporting that cited the central bank’s announcement. The initiatives involve Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia and Capital A on a ringgit stablecoin for B2B settlement, while Maybank and CIMB will separately run tokenised deposit pilots for payments.
The central bank said the pilots will cover domestic and cross-border transactions and will be run in collaboration with ecosystem partners such as corporate clients and, where relevant, other regulators. In disclosures around its participation, CIMB said its testing would include tokenising its own sukuk issuance and using tokenised representations of deposits for end-to-end payment and settlement workflows under approved parameters.
DAIH was launched in June 2025 as a BNM-led mechanism for controlled testing of digital-asset applications, and BNM has said it has engaged more than 30 domestic and international bank and non-bank players to identify and prioritise use cases. BNM has also stated that certain use cases will explore Shariah-related considerations and that the work is intended to provide greater clarity on the use of ringgit stablecoins and tokenised deposits by end-2026, rather than constituting a full-market rollout.
Operationally, the announcement delineates which institutions have approval to test specific money-and-settlement instruments — ringgit stablecoins for B2B settlement and tokenised deposits for payments — inside a supervised setting, which is a key distinction from public deployment. Maybank separately described its first “Ringgit tokenised money” pilot under the hub, including an on-chain cross-border payments exploration involving ringgit and other ASEAN deposit tokens on its permissioned blockchain, with Yinson identified as a corporate participant.
The development primarily affects participating banks and corporate users that are able to test new settlement workflows under DAIH, as well as regulators overseeing wholesale payment integrity and tokenised-asset settlement mechanics. For issuers and market infrastructure providers, the practical change is confined to pilot activity—approved entities can conduct controlled tests of ringgit stablecoin and tokenised deposit use cases—while broader market permissions, product rules, and technical standards remain outside what has been specified in the reported announcement.
