Neobank Wirex Expands Stablecoin Roster
The Singapore dollar-pegged XSGD from StraitsX joins euro and US dollar-backed stablecoin pairs
Blockworks exclusive art by Axel Rangel
- XSGD was chosen as Wirex’s first APAC-based stablecoin
- Wirex users will be able to spend XSGD via the Wirex card
The Singapore dollar-backed stablecoin XSGD now has a market capitalization of about $206 million US dollars, as tracked by Coingecko, amid a total stablecoin market approaching $170 billion. That’s just 0.1% of the total stablecoin market, and yet it makes XSGD the third largest non-USD currency in the stablecoin category, after the euro.
The three leading euro stablecoins Euro Tether, Stasis Euro, and sEUR (from Synthetix) collectively register about $411 million.
The US dollar shows little sign of relinquishing its dominance any time soon, however StraitsX co-founder predicted in October that a majority of stablecoins will eventually be non-USD denominated.
Ease of on-boarding into stablecoins remains the chief barrier to adoption and that’s what the latest announcement from Wirex, a worldwide digital payment platform created in 2014, seeks to address.
The London-based firm developed the world’s first crypto-enabled payment card in 2015, allowing users to spend crypto alongside traditional currencies, and now sports around 4.5 million customers in 130 countries, according to the company.
“It’s vital to offer a wide variety of tokens to suit all users, regardless of their lifestyle and experience with crypto,” said Wirex co-founder and CEO Pavel Matveev in a statement on Thursday, noting that stablecoins are key to attracting new users who seek to avoid the rampant volatility of other digital assets.
Wirex first supported stablecoin was MakerDAO’s DAI back in 2019, but newly available on the platform are True (TUSD), USD Coin, (USDC), Tether (USDT), Paxos’ USDP, Stasis Euro (EURS) and XSGD, with the caveat that only some stablecoins are available in certain regions.
StraitX introduced an Indonesian Rupiah-backed stablecoin in November, and it’s sister company FinTech Xfers is licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore for e-money issuance.
Aymeric Salley, Head of StraitsX, sees a bright future for 11 ASEAN group of countries in Southeast Asia, and said in a statement, “we’re delighted to see Wirex pioneering this effort with XSGD now being supported by the Wirex platform. We look forward to users being able to spend XSGD via the Wirex card.”
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