Thai fintech SCB 10X has launched a wallet to enable the use of US dollar- and Thai baht-pegged stablecoins. The Rubie Wallet is being trialed by foreign visitors at the Devcon event in Bangkok while it is still part of the Bank of Thailand (BOT) and Thai Securities and Exchange Commission regulatory sandbox.
The Rubie Wallet has many collaborators
The Rubie Wallet features a scan-to-pay closed QR loop that is being accepted by around 100 local merchants from Nov. 5 to Nov. 25. Users must undergo Know Your Customer verification to participate.
The wallet is being supported by Thailand’s SCB Bank (Siam Commercial Bank), which, like SCB 10X, is part of the SCB Group, and converts US dollar stablecoin to bahts in real time at the regulated exchange rate.
The wallet is powered by Fireblocks’ wallet-as-a-service infrastructure on the Base blockchain. Circle is also participating in the project. Although the SCB statement did not say so, a user confirmed that the system runs on USD Circle (USDC). Elliptic is providing monitoring and analytics. SCB 10X CEO Mukaya Tai Panich said in a statement:
“We believe that participating in BOT & SEC regulatory sandbox will be a significant move for financial innovation to global financial inclusion as well as the Thai digital asset ecosystem.”
The baht-pegged stablecoin (THBX) uses the purpose-bound money design that specifies the conditions for its usage through smart contracts. That model was pioneered in the Singapore Monetary Authority’s Project Orchid.
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SCB stays busy with crypto
This is SCB’s second foray into stablecoin payments. In October, it announced that it would begin offering stablecoin services for cross-border payment in collaboration with fintech company Lightnet. That project also originated in the BOT sandbox, which was set up in August.
SCB 10X is a significant financial power in the crypto space. It has invested in such organizations as institutional crypto custodian and digital asset platform Anchorage, infrastructure provider Fireblocks, crypto firm Talos, crypto bank Sygnum, The Sandbox metaverse, decentralized infrastructure provider M^0 and the decentralized Sahara AI platform.
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