A new study of cross-border payments news coverage has revealed that blockchain technologies are most discussed in Hong Kong, where 70% of the reporting reviewed focused on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), stablecoins, or tokenization, while in the Asia region overall, 26% of articles discussed the technology.
According to the recently published ‘The New Era of Asia’s Cross-Border Payments’ report, produced by global fintech event firm Money 20/20 and cross-border payments data and intelligence provider FXC Intelligence, blockchain technologies have been a major focus of cross-border payments news around the world over the past year, despite adoption and regulatory approaches differing widely across markets.
The white paper is based on an analysis of 1,000 different industry articles featured on Google News over the last 12 months that focused on cross-border payments. The articles were drawn from 10 major markets in Asia and were published in eight languages.
The findings indicated that CBDCs, stablecoins, and tokenization are becoming a larger part of discussions around cross-border payments in Asia, where 26% of articles on cross-border payments discussed these technologies.
This made blockchain the payment industry’s single most-common cross-border payments topic, ahead of QR Codes and wallet interoperability at 24%; national real-time payment links were next at 19%, remittances and financial inclusion at 13%, artificial intelligence (AI) at 9%, and local currency settlement at 7%.
“There has…been a notable maturation in discussions around digital assets,” said Scarlett Sieber, Chief Strategy & Growth Officer, Money20/20. “Compared with 2025, coverage in 2026 places greater emphasis on defined use cases, regulatory clarity and differentiated applications by market, rather than broad experimentation.”
The increasing focus on blockchain technology could prove to be even more significant, as the paper also predicted that the Asia-Pacific cross-border payments market will reach $24 trillion by 2033.
Hong Kong and Japan: Dueling digital asset hubs
In terms of where these discussions are happening, Hong Kong is the most blockchain-focused jurisdiction, with 70% of reviewed articles discussing CBDCs, stablecoins, or tokenization.
Despite mainland China’s reticence to embrace digital assets—other than the digital yuan (e-CNY), the country’s government-controlled CBDC—Hong Kong has, in contrast, set about becoming a digital asset hub for the region.
In January, Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary, Paul Chan Mo-po, revealed that the special administrative region was preparing to issue its first batch of licenses to stablecoin providers, following the introduction of the ‘Stablecoin Ordinance’ in December 2024, which provides a supervisory and licensing regime for stablecoin providers.
This was followed in February by Hong Kong’s Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christopher Hui, announcing plans to submit a draft digital assets framework in 2026.
Such legislative maneuvers appear to be working, as Hong Kong ranked fifth in the world for crypto adoption—when adjusted by population—in blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis’ 2025 Crypto Adoption Index.
However, Hong Kong is not the only jurisdiction in the Asia Pacific region pushing for blockchain technology adoption.
According to the Money 20/20-FXC Intelligence white paper, over half (51%) of the reviewed cross-border payments articles from Japan discussed CBDCs, stablecoins, or tokenization, and, much like Hong Kong, the country has also been making moves to provide a more comprehensive regulatory regime for blockchain technologies.
In April, Japan’s government approved amendments to its Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA) that would classify digital assets as financial instruments, moving digital asset regulation from its current position under the Payment Services Act (PSA) to be governed by the regulatory framework for securities markets, issuance, trading, and disclosures.
While this move may explain some of the focus on blockchain in payment-related articles, it is symptomatic of a broader attempt in Japan to bring digital assets into the mainstream. This was also evident in June, when the country’s three largest banks announced that they would jointly issue stablecoins during the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2027.
The banking arms of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (NASDAQ: MUFG), Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (NASDAQ: SMFG), and Mizuho Financial Group (NASDAQ: MFG)—the country’s largest financial groups—reportedly plan to create a council to examine operational frameworks for stablecoins and prepare for their issuance, having been studying the feasibility of jointly issuing a stablecoin via a pilot program since late 2025.
The stablecoin initiatives in both these would-be APAC digital asset hubs were identified in the payments white paper as particular contributing factors to the high discussion rate of blockchain technology: “In Japan, elevated discussion was buoyed by a multi-bank stablecoin initiative and the approval of the first yen-pegged stablecoin, while a variety of stablecoin projects from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, including the implementation of a regulatory regime for issuers, drove discussion in the territory.”
Stablecoins vs CBDC
When it comes to the specific technologies being discussed, the white paper noted that stablecoins took a lot of the headlines, particularly with the July 2025 passage in the United States of the GENIUS Act, which “prompted rapid industry development and saw regulators in many other markets look to follow suit.”
According to the paper, stablecoins are largely being looked at for retail applications in Asia’s payments market, with varying levels of regulatory maturity and country-level variations.
“Stablecoins are a transformative addition to our industry, offering a new era of digital liquidity, but they are not a single solution to cross border payments,” said Chloé Mayenobe, Deputy CEO of cross-border payments network Thunes. “We believe that for the end-user, the underlying rail should be irrelevant. Whether it is a salary payout or a business transfer, money should move with the same speed as data on the internet.”
China, in contrast, is highly focused on CBDCs, having already launched its own retail e-CNY, which drew discussion alongside crackdowns on the use of unauthorized stablecoins in the country.
Broadly speaking, though, the analysis revealed that CBDCs are generally being explored for wholesale, central bank-led initiatives rather than for retail, in particular via project mBridge, an international initiative spearheaded by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), along with several central banks, that aims to tackle key inefficiencies in cross-border payments.
Overall, the paper noted that coverage of blockchain-based technologies was largely future focused, “with much of the potential still lying ahead.”
However, it is also suggested that many future expectations focus on technologies becoming routine infrastructure and forming critical foundational elements of the region’s cross-border payment rails. In this respect, there is still much work to be done.
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