Malaysia Unveils Three-year Roadmap to Pilot Asset Tokenization
Malaysia bets big on tokenized finance with bold three-year plan
Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has set a three-year plan to test asset tokenization across the country’s financial system, outlining proofs of concept and live pilots to be run through its newly formed Digital Asset Innovation Hub (DAIH). The roadmap, announced Friday, is designed to move tokenization from theory to deployment while addressing legal, operational, and supervisory gaps.
A new Asset Tokenization Industry Working Group, co-led by BNM and the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), will coordinate market experiments and define guardrails. Initial trials will focus on use cases with measurable economic value, rather than speculative crypto activity, and will center on real-world assets.
Priority experiments include supply-chain financing that widens SMEs’ access to credit, tokenized liquidity management for faster settlement, Shariah-compliant automation for Islamic finance, programmable payments, green finance tracking, and around-the-clock cross-border trade settlement. BNM will also study MYR-denominated tokenized deposits and ringgit stablecoins to preserve the “singleness of money,” and assess how a wholesale central bank digital currency could integrate with these rails.
Malaysia aims to keep pace with regional peers such as Singapore’s MAS and Hong Kong’s HKMA, which are already running tokenization pilots. Industry feedback on BNM’s discussion paper is open until March 1, 2026, giving banks, fintechs, and market infrastructures time to weigh in on technical standards, compliance, and consumer protections.
Separately, the SC in July floated a faster pathway for crypto listings. Under the proposal, approved exchanges could list certain tokens without prior SC sign-off if assets have been traded for at least a year on FATF-compliant venues and have undergone public security audits. The approach would push more responsibility to exchanges while aiming to improve investor access and market transparency.
If executed, the twin tracks—tokenized finance pilots and streamlined listings—position Malaysia to modernize market plumbing while tightening oversight, safeguarding users, and overall systemic resilience.
