Asia Payment Network is a permissioned, compliance-first, chain-agnostic settlement network for cross-border stablecoin payments — connecting licensed financial institutions across Singapore, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia through a neutral architecture with 24/7 near-instant, multi-currency PvP settlement. Members write the rules, contribute the corridors, and share the standards.
A permissioned network open to licensed financial institutions only. The FATF Travel Rule and counterparty risk controls are built into the protocol, not bolted on — every member keeps the final right to approve or decline each inbound transaction.
No binding to a single chain, no mandated issuer. Each institution chooses the blockchains it runs on and the compliant settlement stablecoins it uses, by its own risk and compliance requirements; the network operator is never a counterparty.
A single integration reaches corridors across multiple Asian markets — no bilateral agreements negotiated one by one, no nostro accounts and pre-funding to maintain, freeing meaningful trapped working capital.
Three independent shifts have opened a window that did not exist 18 months ago: Asian regimes landing in parallel, stablecoins crossing into real payments, and cross-border settlement searching for a neutral organizer.
Japan's revised Payment Services Act took effect on 1 June 2026, opening a compliance path for trust-type and foreign stablecoins; Hong Kong's Stablecoins Ordinance came into force in August 2025; Singapore's MAS has finalised its stablecoin framework; Korea's legislation is advancing; and the US GENIUS Act anchors dollar stablecoins. Multiple jurisdictions issuing clear rules in the same window — this is the moment to build a compliant network.
McKinsey and Artemis place real stablecoin payment volume near USD 390 billion a year, more than doubling year-on-year, with roughly 60% originating in Asia — concentrated in Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. B2B is the fastest-growing use case at ~733% YoY. What the market lacks is no longer another issuer — it is the settlement layer that connects licensed issuers, PSPs, banks, card programs, custody and compliance tooling.
No single company can simultaneously earn multi-jurisdiction regulatory trust, commercial neutrality, and network effects. The opportunity for Asia Payment Network is not to be another wallet or payment company — it is to organize a settlement network whose members define the rules, contribute corridor volume, and share the standards.
Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong and Seoul have each opened their regulatory doors; the market has proven real stablecoin payment demand. What is missing in between is a credible layer of multilateral coordination. That is exactly the position this network is built to hold.
Four capabilities, drawn from the network design in Whitepaper v1.0 — not a conference, and not a standards body without rails, but a network that settles.
Originating (OFI) and Beneficiary (BFI) financial institutions form the settlement core; an orchestration layer runs counterparty discovery, RFQ quote aggregation, routing and encrypted compliance exchange — modeled on Circle Payments Network's production design. The network operator holds no funds and is never a counterparty.
Members connect once and reach every corridor on the network — no bilateral negotiations, no nostro accounts, no pre-funding. Quotes are aggregated off-chain with locked FX rates, eliminating in-flight currency risk; settlement happens on public chains.
USD and HKD stablecoins are the settlement media today; a JPY-denominated stablecoin joins as the third core leg on admission. Both currency legs are atomically bound — both complete or neither does — removing settlement risk. End-to-end in minutes, 24/7.
A permissioned network open to licensed financial institutions only: FATF Travel Rule data is exchanged encrypted between OFI and BFI; members self-configure risk controls across geography, payment type, counterparty and tier — and keep the final right to approve or decline every inbound transaction.
APN is a coordination and standards layer for licensed institutions: it sets the network rules, defines the technical protocol, reviews eligibility, and orchestrates corridor discovery and settlement coordination. Clearing and settlement happen directly between member institutions — each member transacts within its own licences, under its own risk policies, serving its own customers.
The convener, IOSG Ventures, has a deliberately bounded role: convening, research, and equity investment in key companies. The network is shaped by its members, and is built to outlive any single organizer.
Founding partners span the entire value chain — so the network can complete a full payment flow, not just one segment of it.
Licensed issuers of stablecoins and tokenized money — the USD, HKD and (on admission) JPY settlement legs whose value moves through the network. Issuer-agnostic: no single issuer is mandated.
Chain-agnostic settlement rails. The network favors no single chain; members choose their operating chains by their own risk and compliance needs.
The network's workhorse layer: fiat-crypto on/off-ramps, custody, and the payment service providers and licensed remitters acting as OFIs / BFIs that move money in and out.
BIN sponsors and issuers connecting on-chain balances to everyday card spend — following the stablecoin-card path Visa and Mastercard already run in production.
Consumer-facing neobanks, and the yield layer that puts balances to work.
Travel Rule, on-chain screening and monitoring built in from day one — compliance as a shared standard, not an afterthought.
Founding partners are admitted selectively across these layers. The specific company list is disclosed privately to prospective members during the admission process.
Different roles get different things from the network — a value proposition by role, and the starting point for the admission conversation.
Run customer verification and local-currency conversion inside your own licences and compliance framework, and reach payout corridors across the region through one integration — no bilateral agreements one by one, sharply lower nostro pre-funding, and you keep your own pricing and customer relationships.
Provide local-currency payout through domestic rails and grow inbound flow from institutions across the region — replacing correspondent clearing queues with 24/7 near-instant settlement, and earning new corridor revenue under the three-tier fee model on infrastructure you already run.
The network is issuer-agnostic by charter: compliant stablecoins are admitted as settlement media through governance assessment — reserve transparency, fiat liquidity, risk controls, compliance reporting. One admission, and every member becomes a distribution counterparty. Distribution answers the use-case question.
Join as a value-adding service provider — liquidity / FX, custody, risk screening, Travel Rule and reconciliation capabilities for members — expanding your coverage as corridors grow, and building a new institutional revenue line.
How the network stays structurally neutral — and worth joining. These are founding-phase design commitments, refined with founding members rather than handed down.
The network operator holds no funds, moves no funds, and never enters the transaction path — it is a coordination protocol and a rulebook, not another payment company. Members hold their own licences, carry their own transaction risk, and keep their own customer relationships.
A three-tier fee model (payout fees, FX spreads, network fees) flows to the members who actually provide payout capacity, liquidity and compliance services; members of the same class face consistent, transparent fee rules. No member can buy advantage on size alone.
Governance is designed so that no single jurisdiction — and no single entity — can dominate rules, issuance or reserves. Access and pricing do not discriminate by a member's home country; review depth is tiered by risk, not nationality. Neutrality is the asset.
Compliance posture and admission controls are built in from the start, with no binding to any single chain or issuer. Compliant stablecoins are admitted as settlement media through governance assessment — reserve transparency, fiat liquidity, risk controls, reporting. Real assets and real rails, not a collection of logos.
One of APN's design principles is that the economic value the network generates should track members' contribution to the network — rather than concentrate in a single entity. Governance is open to founding partners: the Rulebook, eligibility standards and fee rules are decided by a governance mechanism that represents the collective interest, not controlled unilaterally by the convener — founding members write the rules rather than inherit them.
To be explicit: the above are the network's design principles and governance intent — not a promise of returns or guaranteed income to any member. Specific economic arrangements will be finalised as regulatory frameworks mature and the network goes live, and will operate within each jurisdiction's licensing and compliance boundaries. Government bodies may support the direction; that does not constitute an endorsement of APN.
The figures below are market and opportunity indicators, plus public regulatory milestones — not APN performance. Sources and dates are labelled line by line; the commercial structure remains to be shaped with founding members.
These are market and opportunity indicators, not APN network performance; the network is in its founding anchor phase, and real corridor data will be published once live and auditable.
Covering reserves, redemption and disclosure — among the earliest stablecoin regimes in Asia. MAS regulation →
The HKMA brings fiat-referenced stablecoin issuance under licensing. Government notice →
Licensed issuance enters live operation — a regulated issuance base for the HKD and USD settlement legs.
A compliance path for foreign trust-type stablecoins and a lighter intermediary licence category — the regulatory base for the JPY settlement leg is in place. JFSA →
Korea's Digital Asset Basic Act legislation continues to advance; Seoul is among the next hubs in the network's coverage plan.
The three models are independent. An institution can enter with any one and add the others as the network proves itself.
Join the 5–10 institution founding cohort (2026 anchor window); co-write the Rulebook, eligibility standards and stablecoin-admission criteria — with a governance seat and corridor priority. Founding anchors write these rules rather than inherit them.
Submit a compliant stablecoin to the settlement-media governance assessment — reserve transparency, fiat liquidity, risk controls, compliance reporting. One admission, and every network member becomes a distribution counterparty. Distribution answers the use-case question.
A licensed exchange / ramp as OFI and a licensed remitter as BFI operating a corridor — new corridor revenue under the three-tier fee model, on infrastructure the member already runs. New revenue, zero new build.
Anchor phase confirms 5–10 founding members and joint Rulebook drafting → first corridor live with real payment volume in Q4 2026 → corridor expansion and agentic-payment interfaces in 2027. Acceleration and convergence thresholds are published in the whitepaper.
APN is designing the network rules, eligibility standards and technical protocol together with licensed payment institutions, banks, compliant stablecoin issuers and compliance-technology firms across multiple Asian jurisdictions — ensuring the network meets the high bar for trust and operational integrity that the region's leading financial institutions expect.
The founding design partner list is disclosed privately to prospective members during the admission process, and will be published as members once the network is live and permissions are granted.
Asia Payment Network is convened by IOSG Ventures, an investment firm active in digital assets and payments infrastructure since 2017, headquartered in Hong Kong and New York, with ~USD 300M AUM and 100+ portfolio companies.
IOSG's role is deliberately bounded: convening, research, and equity investment in key companies. The network is shaped by its members — IOSG holds no licence, operates no payment business, and never enters the transaction path. The goal is a network that outlives and outgrows any single organizer.
We are keeping the first cohort to 5–10 anchors, so governance stays workable and every founding voice carries weight. If your company builds stablecoin payments, settlement or tokenization rails in Asia — whether you are based in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong or Southeast Asia — we want to talk.