Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia Market Overview

Southeast Asia is one of the fastest-growing digital payment regions globally, characterized by a unique convergence of mobile-first behavior, high crypto adoption, and government-led payment infrastructure.

Unlike mature Western markets that are heavily dependent on card networks, Southeast Asia has leapfrogged directly into QR-based and wallet-driven payment systems, creating an ideal environment for next-generation financial infrastructure.

Across the region, national payment systems such as:

• PromptPay (Thailand)

• VietQR (Vietnam)

• QRPH (Philippines)

• QRIS (Indonesia)

have standardized QR payments, enabling interoperability across banks, e-wallets, and merchants. This has resulted in widespread adoption, even among small and informal businesses.

Regional Market Highlights

• Southeast Asia’s digital payments market is projected to exceed $1 trillion in transaction value

• Over 70% of the population uses mobile internet, supporting mobile-first financial behavior

• QR payments dominate retail transactions in key markets

• The region ranks among the highest globally in crypto adoption, particularly in:

  • Vietnam

  • Philippines

  • Indonesia

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🇹🇭 Thailand

Thailand serves as the pilot country for PayWithCrypto deployment, representing one of the most advanced digital payment ecosystems in Southeast Asia. The country has successfully transitioned into a QR-first economy, supported by strong regulatory oversight and national infrastructure led by the Bank of Thailand (BOT).

The launch of PromptPay, Thailand’s national QR payment system, has enabled widespread interoperability across banks, e-wallets, and merchants. With high consumer adoption and strong government backing, Thailand provides an ideal environment to pilot real-world crypto payment integration within an established financial system.

Market Highlights

• PromptPay has over 90 million registered users, exceeding the country’s population due to multi-account usage

• Thailand processes tens of millions of QR-based transactions daily, making QR payments the dominant retail payment method

• Thailand is among the leading countries globally in crypto adoption, with strong retail participation and exchange activity

• The government has initiated crypto-related payment pilots, including enabling foreign tourists to convert crypto into Thai Baht for local spending

Opportunities

1. Pilot Deployment Environment

Thailand is designated as the pilot country for PayWithCrypto, enabling:

✔ Real-world testing of crypto payment flows ✔ Integration with existing financial infrastructure ✔ Validation of user and merchant adoption

This allows PayWithCrypto to refine its model before scaling across other markets.

2. PromptPay Integration (National QR System)

PromptPay enables:

✔ Seamless QR-based payments across merchants ✔ Interoperability between banks and wallets ✔ Immediate compatibility with existing payment behavior

This creates a plug-and-play environment for crypto-to-fiat transactions.

3. Tourism-Driven Payment Demand

Thailand is one of the world’s top tourism destinations, creating demand for:

✔ foreign payment methods ✔ cross-border settlement ✔ digital asset spending

The government’s pilot programs exploring crypto-to-baht conversion for tourists further reinforce this opportunity.

4. Strong Regulatory and Institutional Support

Thailand offers:

• a well-regulated financial system

• active central bank oversight

• openness to financial innovation

This reduces risk and supports compliant deployment of crypto payment infrastructure.

5. Mature Merchant Ecosystem

Thailand has:

• high merchant QR adoption

• strong SME participation

• widespread POS infrastructure

This enables:

✔ rapid merchant onboarding ✔ scalable real-world usage ✔ immediate transaction volume

Strategic Positioning for PayWithCrypto

Thailand is not just a market — it is a validation ground.

If crypto payments can work seamlessly in Thailand’s regulated, QR-dominant environment, they can scale globally.

PayWithCrypto leverages Thailand to:

✔ validate Super App integration ✔ test POS + QR interoperability ✔ optimize crypto-to-fiat settlement flows

Thailand represents a high-readiness, high-trust environment for deploying next-generation payment infrastructure.

The combination of:

• national QR dominance (PromptPay)

• strong regulatory framework

• active government pilots

• high consumer adoption

makes it the ideal pilot country for PayWithCrypto.

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🇻🇳 Vietnam

Vietnam is consistently ranked among the top countries globally in crypto adoption, driven by a digitally native population, strong retail participation, and increasing use of alternative financial tools. At the same time, the country has rapidly advanced its cashless payment infrastructure, supported by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and major commercial banks.

The introduction of VietQR, a standardized national QR payment framework, has significantly improved interoperability across banks and payment providers, accelerating merchant acceptance and consumer usage. Vietnam’s payment ecosystem is now characterized by mobile-first behavior and QR-led transactions, making it one of the most suitable markets for integrated digital asset payments.

Market Highlights

• Vietnam has approximately 17–19 million crypto users, representing ~18–21% of the population, placing it among the highest globally in adoption

• The total value of cashless payments reached approximately 28 times GDP in 2025, reflecting deep digital payment penetration

• QR code payments recorded over 100% year-on-year growth, including +106% in transaction volume and +128% in value

• QR payments are widely accepted across millions of merchants, driven by bank-led QR standardization (VietQR) and strong SME adoption

• QR payment usage has become mainstream in daily transactions, particularly across retail, food & beverage, and service sectors

Opportunities

Vietnam represents one of the strongest immediate deployment markets for PayWithCrypto due to the alignment of:

1. QR Payment Integration (VietQR)

Integration with VietQR allows PayWithCrypto to enable:

✔ Crypto scan-to-pay using existing banking rails ✔ Instant merchant acceptance without behavior change ✔ Seamless interoperability across banks and wallets

2. Mobile-First Consumer Behavior

Vietnam’s population is:

• Highly mobile-native

• Comfortable with QR payments

• Rapidly adopting digital financial tools

This makes onboarding friction extremely low compared to card-based economies.

3. Merchant Expansion via Soft POS

With a large base of:

• street vendors

• cafés

• small retailers

PayWithCrypto can deploy:

✔ Soft POS solutions (mobile-based merchant tools) ✔ Tokenized loyalty systems ✔ Low-cost onboarding for SMEs

4. Tourism & Cross-Border Payments

Vietnam is a major tourism hub, creating strong demand for:

• foreign crypto spending

• cross-border payments

• instant conversion to local currency

This aligns perfectly with:

✔ Super App payments ✔ POS infrastructure ✔ OTC settlement layer

5. Regulatory Direction

While still evolving, Vietnam’s regulatory stance is:

• increasingly supportive of digital payments

• focused on structured crypto frameworks

• aligned with financial innovation goals

Strategic Positioning for PayWithCrypto

Vietnam is not just a growth market — it is a launchpad market.

High crypto adoption + QR dominance + merchant density = ideal conditions for real-world crypto payments at scale

PayWithCrypto can position itself as:

✔ The bridge between crypto users and everyday merchants ✔ A seamless extension of VietQR infrastructure ✔ A scalable model for replication across Southeast Asia

Vietnam represents a high-readiness market where all critical components already exist:

• user demand (crypto adoption)

• payment infrastructure (VietQR)

• merchant acceptance (QR ecosystem)

The missing layer is integration — and this is exactly where PayWithCrypto delivers value.

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🇵🇭 Philippines

The Philippines is one of Southeast Asia’s most advanced digital payment and remittance-driven economies, supported by strong central bank initiatives and widespread mobile wallet adoption. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has led the transition toward a cash-lite economy through the rollout of QRPH, the national QR payment standard that enables interoperability across banks and e-wallets.

At the same time, the Philippines ranks among the leading countries globally in crypto adoption, driven by remittance demand, retail participation, and a highly digital population. This combination creates a strong foundation for real-world crypto payment integration.

Market Highlights

• • The Philippines has approximately 11.6 million crypto users, representing around 10–11% of the population, placing it among the top globally in adoption

  • Digital payments accounted for 57.4% of total retail transactions in 2024, reflecting rapid adoption of cashless payments

  • The Philippines recorded over USD 35.6 billion in remittance inflows in 2025, highlighting strong demand for cross-border payment solutions

Opportunities

The Philippines presents one of the strongest real-world use cases for PayWithCrypto due to the combination of remittance demand, QR infrastructure, and crypto adoption.

1. QRPH Integration (National QR Infrastructure)

The implementation of QRPH enables:

✔ Seamless interoperability between banks and e-wallets ✔ Immediate merchant acceptance without additional hardware ✔ Scalable deployment of crypto-enabled QR payments

2. Remittance-Driven Economy

With over $35B annually in remittances, the Philippines presents a major opportunity for:

✔ Crypto-based remittance solutions ✔ Faster and lower-cost cross-border transfers ✔ Direct conversion into local merchant payments

3. Mobile Wallet Dominance

The Philippines has one of the highest adoption rates of:

• mobile wallets

• app-based financial services

This allows PayWithCrypto to integrate into existing user behavior with minimal friction.

4. SME and Informal Economy

A large portion of economic activity is driven by:

• small businesses

• freelancers

• local merchants

This supports:

✔ Soft POS adoption ✔ QR-based payments ✔ scalable merchant onboarding

5. Cross-Border Digital Workforce

The Philippines has a strong:

• freelance economy

• BPO sector

• digital workforce

This creates demand for:

✔ crypto payouts ✔ cross-border payments ✔ stablecoin settlement

Strategic Positioning for PayWithCrypto

The Philippines is a high-transaction, high-frequency payment market, where:

• money flows continuously through remittances

• digital payments are already mainstream

• crypto adoption is significant

The opportunity lies in connecting cross-border value flow directly into real-world spending.

PayWithCrypto enables this by integrating:

✔ Super App (user + merchant interface) ✔ QRPH-compatible payments ✔ POS and Soft POS infrastructure ✔ OTC and stablecoin settlement

The Philippines represents a high-impact market where:

• digital payments are already scaled

• remittance demand is massive

• crypto adoption is established

The missing layer is a unified system that connects crypto → local currency → merchant payments

PayWithCrypto delivers this integration.

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🇮🇩 Indonesia

Indonesia is one of Southeast Asia’s most important digital payment markets, combining large-scale QR infrastructure, strong grassroots crypto adoption, and active regulatory development. The country’s payment ecosystem is anchored by QRIS (Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard), the national QR standard launched by Bank Indonesia to unify digital payments across banks, e-wallets, and merchants. By mid-2025, QRIS had reached 57 million users and 39.3 million merchants, showing exceptional scale in everyday commerce.

Indonesia is also one of the world’s leading crypto markets. Chainalysis ranked Indonesia 7th globally in its 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index, while Reuters reported that Indonesia had more than 20 million crypto users and crypto transaction value exceeding 650 trillion rupiah in 2024. Together, these trends make Indonesia a high-potential market for real-world crypto payments, especially where QR-led consumer behavior is already entrenched.

Market Highlights

• Indonesia ranked 7th globally in the 2025 Chainalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index, reflecting strong grassroots and retail participation.

• QRIS reached 57 million users and 39.3 million merchants by June 2025, demonstrating broad national payment infrastructure coverage.

• Reuters reported that Indonesia had more than 20 million crypto users, with crypto transaction value exceeding 650 trillion rupiah in 2024, highlighting rapid market growth and rising participation.

Opportunities

1. QRIS Integration (National QR Infrastructure)

QRIS provides a ready-made merchant acceptance layer for PayWithCrypto by enabling:

✔ interoperability across banks and e-wallets ✔ low-friction QR payments at existing merchants ✔ scalable crypto-to-fiat payment deployment using familiar user behavior

Because QRIS is already deeply embedded in Indonesia’s retail payment habits, integration into this ecosystem would reduce merchant onboarding friction and accelerate usability.

2. Large-Scale Merchant Reach

Indonesia’s 39.3 million QRIS merchants make it one of the largest merchant QR ecosystems in the region. This is especially relevant for PayWithCrypto because it creates immediate distribution potential across:

• SMEs

• informal merchants

• food and beverage

• tourism and services

That breadth of acceptance is a major advantage for real-world crypto payments.

3. Strong Crypto Participation

Indonesia’s high global ranking in crypto adoption signals a large base of users already familiar with digital assets. Rather than building demand from zero, PWC can focus on enabling practical spending utility by linking crypto balances to everyday merchant transactions.

4. Cross-Border and Tourism Potential

Bank Indonesia has also been expanding cross-border QRIS and tourism-linked digital payment access, including initiatives to make digital payments easier for visitors in destinations such as Bali. This supports a broader use case for crypto-enabled spending, especially where cross-border liquidity and local merchant acceptance intersect.

5. Regulatory Evolution

Indonesia’s regulatory framework is becoming more structured. As of January 2025, oversight of crypto assets shifted from Bappebti to the Financial Services Authority (OJK), marking a transition toward a more finance-centered supervisory model. This is important because payment infrastructure requires not just user adoption, but also credible regulatory pathways.

Strategic Positioning for PayWithCrypto

Indonesia is not only a scale market — it is a high-utility market.

High QR infrastructure + strong crypto usage + large merchant reach creates ideal conditions for real-world crypto payments.

PayWithCrypto can position itself in Indonesia as:

✔ a bridge between crypto users and everyday merchants ✔ a QR-native payment layer compatible with existing behavior ✔ a scalable model for online, offline, and cross-border transactions

Indonesia represents one of the strongest expansion markets for PayWithCrypto because the core ingredients are already in place:

• a nationally standardized QR system

• tens of millions of merchants and users

• high crypto participation

• evolving regulatory oversight