Circle is turning its stablecoin rails into core settlement plumbing for Asia’s financial sector as it expands services across key markets, including Singapore, Japan, India, and the broader Asia-Pacific region. The company is leaning on USDC and a growing partner network to move money faster, cheaper, and in local currencies while staying inside tight regulatory rules.
Circle Adds New Payout Corridors and Local Partners
Circle recently added new local currency payout corridors in India, Singapore, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates, the European Union, and the United States to its Circle Payments Network. Banks, payment companies, VASPs, and businesses can fund payments in stablecoins like USDC and settle to end users in local currency using domestic rails such as Fedwire in the United States, SEPA in Europe, and FAST in Singapore, through a single integration.
Each market’s regulated local partners, who manage last-mile payouts and compliance, are essential to expansion. Circle emphasizes that rather than directly targeting consumer-facing apps, this approach focuses on enterprise and institutional use cases, including remittances, corporate payouts, and merchant settlement.
Asia-Pacific Emerges as a Stablecoin Hub
Asia-Pacific is now the world’s fastest-growing stablecoin area, according to Circle’s own data. On-chain stablecoin transactions in APAC totaled approximately $2.4 trillion between June 2024 and June 2025, with annual growth exceeding 69%.
The company stated during the Circle Forum in Singapore that 56% of Asian institutions currently utilize stablecoins for settlements, payments, and treasury, the greatest percentage of any region.
After the US, Singapore and Hong Kong are currently the world’s second and third-largest hubs for stablecoin adoption, respectively. APAC’s monthly corporate stablecoin transaction volumes increased from less than $100 million in 2023 to more than $3 billion by early 2025, driven by cross-border corporate payments, luxury retail, travel, and high-value items.
A large portion of this focus on formal licensing in important hubs has been developed by Circle. The Monetary Authority of Singapore has granted Circle Singapore a Major Payment Institution license, enabling it to provide both domestic and international money transfers and digital payment token services.
With that license, companies can create Circle accounts, mint USDC continuously, and use local banking institutions to exchange it for Singapore dollars or US dollars.
In Japan, regulators revamped the Payment Services Act to allow certain foreign-issued stablecoins, and Circle quickly launched Circle Japan KK and a joint venture with SBI Holdings.
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