Singapore-based stablecoin payments company Dtcpay has completed a 25 million USD Series A round after securing backing from Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Group — money that both sides say will fund a “digital asset corridor” between Japan and Southeast Asia.
By Amir Hassan | September 18, 2026
For anyone who still thinks of stablecoins as just trader tools, this deal is another signal of where the real volume is heading: payments. Stablecoins — crypto tokens pegged to fiat currencies like the US dollar — are increasingly being used to move money across borders the way email moves messages: instantly, around the clock. Dtcpay builds the plumbing for exactly that, and one of Japan’s largest financial groups just bought in.
The Hook: A Two-Tranche Round, Finished by SBI
On Friday, SBI Holdings announced it invested in Dtcpay through SBI Ventures Asset and the SBI-NTU-Kyobu Digital Innovation Fund, two Singapore-based investment vehicles managed by the group. Neither side disclosed the size of SBI’s contribution or the company’s valuation — but the investment completed Dtcpay’s 25 million USD Series A, which began in April with a 10 million USD tranche led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India. Genedant Capital and existing investor Kwee Liong Tek also participated.
This is not Dtcpay’s first institutional vote of confidence. The company previously raised 16.5 million USD in pre-Series A funding in June 2023, when it launched retail crypto payments systems with Chinese partners. The new round more than doubles its known total fundraising.
What Dtcpay Actually Builds
Dtcpay provides infrastructure that lets businesses and individuals accept, store, and transact in both stablecoins and traditional fiat currencies. According to the company, its core products include:
- Real-time stablecoin-to-fiat conversion — merchants take payment in stablecoins and receive local currency without manually trading on an exchange
- Merchant payment terminals — point-of-sale hardware that treats stablecoins like any other payment method
- A Visa card — customers spend supported stablecoins anywhere on the card network
Crucially, Dtcpay is fully licensed in two major jurisdictions. It holds a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and an Electronic Money Institution license in Luxembourg, where it has established its continental European headquarters. For the payments business, licenses are the moat — they are slow and expensive to obtain, and they are exactly what a strategic investor like SBI is paying for.
The Core Conflict: Why a Japanese Giant Wants a Singapore Payments Rail
SBI said the investment supports its effort to build a digital asset corridor between Japan and Southeast Asia. Think of a corridor as a validated route: businesses on both ends use compatible, licensed infrastructure, so cross-border payments flow through regulated channels instead of ad-hoc workarounds. Southeast Asia is one of the world’s most active regions for stablecoin settlement, and Japan has spent years building a licensed digital-asset framework at home. A Singapore-based, MAS-licensed payments firm is a natural bridge.
Dtcpay says the fresh capital will fund an expansion of its merchant network and product suite, including a revamped business portal and new consumer features. Notably, the company has already shifted to a stablecoin-only payments model, a bet that pegged tokens — not volatile cryptocurrencies — are what commerce actually needs.
What This Means for You
- Payments, not speculation — institutional money keeps flowing into stablecoin infrastructure, the boring-but-profitable layer of crypto
- Asia is the arena — Japan-Southeast Asia corridors are becoming the proving ground for regulated digital-asset settlement
- Licenses matter — MAS and Luxembourg credentials make Dtcpay a partner banks can work with, which is the whole point
- Expect more of this — as major economies clarify stablecoin rules, legacy financial groups are buying their way in rather than building from scratch
The Verdict
A 25 million USD Series A will not make headlines the way billion-dollar valuations do, but the pattern it confirms is significant: traditional finance is not fighting stablecoin payments anymore — it is funding them. With SBI’s backing, a licensed Singapore-Luxembourg footprint, and an explicit cross-border corridor strategy, Dtcpay becomes one more piece of infrastructure quietly wiring stablecoins into everyday commerce. For investors, the takeaway is that the infrastructure layer of crypto keeps consolidating institutional support, even on days when prices go nowhere.
The cryptocurrency market remains highly volatile. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
sbi putting money into singapore payment rails right as japan sorts out its own stablecoin rules. they always find the corridor before anyone sees the door
^ sbi already has stakes in b2c2 and a pile of other crypto ventures. they shotgun the sector and wait for one to hit big
shotgun approach with an unusually good hit rate. sbi was early on the ripple jv, b2c2, now dtcpay, they treat crypto rails like a portfolio not a bet
SBI does not drop 25 million on experiments. The Japan-Southeast Asia corridor framing tells you this is settlement rail money for real trade flows.
exactly, remittance corridors are where stablecoins already beat swift on cost. sbi is buying the pipe before the volume reprices it
^ this. first tranche was 10M back in april, SBI closing the round at 25M means they liked the volume numbers they saw in due diligence
10M in april to a 25M close means dtcpay showed real settlement volume in diligence. sbi does not double down on a corridor thesis off vibes
settlement rail money exactly. sbi also runs a jv with ripple for cross border payments, they are clearly building out the japan facing plumbing layer piece by piece
the MAS license is the unspoken detail. singapore hands them onshore credibility that japanese regulators still make you earn the slow way
25M Series A with Vertex and now SBI. Dtcpay went from who to credible in one round. The Japan-SEA remittance corridor is where the actual volume lives.
first tranche was 10M in april, now the round closes at 25M with SBI in. somebody at dtcpay showed real payment volume during due diligence, follow on rounds dont happen off slideware
banks still take 2-3 days and skim like 4% on japan to SEA remittances. stablecoin rails are not exactly a hard sell there lol
4% is even conservative for some SME corridors in SEA once the correspondent bank chain gets involved. the 24/7 settlement alone makes the old rails look broken
4 percent and three days is the SME reality. one stablecoin rail closing that gap pays for the whole series A in a quarter of corridor volume
japan to SEA makes total sense, both sides already have stablecoin rules forming. sbi timing these corridor entries is like clockwork