Published
Bank Negara's Digital Asset Innovation Hub (DAIH) just onboarded its first wave of real-world tokenised-deposit trials for wholesale and cross-border settlement. This is the boring, important version of "blockchain in banking" — institutional liquidity, not retail crypto. Here's what it is, what changes for you, and what to track now.
First wave · Live trials
BNM's Digital Asset Innovation Hub (DAIH) onboarded its first cohort for tokenised-deposit trials, focused on wholesale domestic and cross-border settlement.
This is the official transition of blockchain rails in Malaysia from "crypto speculation" to "institutional liquidity." Retail use cases come later, and through licensed banks — not public chains.
Tokenised deposits are commercial-bank money — your RM in a bank account — represented as tokens on a permissioned distributed ledger. The token is a 1:1 claim against the issuing bank, settled in central-bank money behind the scenes. From the customer side, it still feels like Maybank or CIMB. From the bank's side, the rails have changed.
Stablecoins (private)
Tokenised deposits (banks)
CBDC (a wholesale "digital ringgit" issued directly by BNM) is a separate workstream. Today's DAIH cohort is about commercial-bank tokens settling on shared rails, not BNM minting digital cash for the public.
The customer experience stays as it is — DuitNow QR, debit card, online banking. The change is back-end: how the money moves between banks, how settlement clears, how cross-border flows route. You experience it as faster availability and (eventually) lower fees, not as a new app.
The real near-term win is cross-border. Sending SGD to a Singapore designer, receiving USD from a Jakarta client — those flows today carry 2–4% all-in (FX spread + correspondent fees). Tokenised deposits on shared rails (think Project Nexus, ASEAN-5 corridors) target sub-1% all-in over the next 18–36 months.
DuitNow QR is already near-instant for retail. Tokenised-deposit rails primarily upgrade interbank GIRO, batch payroll runs, and large-value transfers — moving them from T+1/T+3 to near real-time. Useful for SMEs running payroll on the 25th. Invisible to most consumers.
When the daily payout from your processor hits — Stripe, iPay88, Razer Merchant, Senangpay, etc. — log it in Duitful with Category set to the channel. The fee is the difference between gross sales and the payout. After 90 days, Reports tells you which channel costs the most.
Any payment in a non-MYR currency, log the original amount and let Duitful auto-convert. Note the FX spread the processor charged in the description. That's the line item tokenised-deposit rails will compress — you want a clean baseline before they ship.
Monthly GIRO payroll, supplier ACH, contractor payouts — tag them so you can see the timing improvement when banks switch your large-batch transfers to DLT settlement. Most SMEs will start seeing T+0 batch settlement within 12–24 months for participating banks.
There is no public token to buy. Tokenised deposits are commercial-bank liabilities on a permissioned ledger — they are not investment instruments. Anyone selling you a token claiming to be DAIH-related is running a scam. Report to BNM's eLINK and the Securities Commission.
Some projects are quietly rebranding existing public-chain stablecoins as "Malaysia-friendly." Without explicit BNM oversight under the existing payment systems framework, they sit in regulatory grey. Don't accept them as a merchant. Track only legitimate channels through licensed PSPs.
Tokenised deposits are not crypto-as-payment. They are bank money on better rails. The customer-facing payment instruments (cards, QR, wallets) stay the same in 2026. Anyone conflating the two is selling a course or a token.
For broader merchant payment hygiene, the Ringgit stablecoins for merchants guide covers the same territory from the fee-compression angle. This guide and that one fit together.
Same risk as today — the deposit is still a claim against your bank, and PIDM coverage applies the same way. The token is just a representation of that claim on a shared ledger. No new counterparty added.
No, not in 2026. The rail change is invisible to the consumer. Banks may eventually surface "instant cross-border" as a feature, but that's a UX label on top of the new plumbing — not a new app.
Not at all. E-invoice requirements are independent of the settlement rail. Whether the customer paid via DuitNow QR, card, or a future tokenised-deposit transfer, you still issue the e-invoice with the MYR amount. Duitful's CSV export keeps channel and amount cleanly separated for your accountant.
Expect partial production rollout via your existing bank within 12–18 months for ASEAN-5 corridors, and broader availability over 24–36 months. The price compression you'll feel: today's 2–4% all-in cross-border drops toward 0.5–1.5%. Track your current effective rate now so you have a baseline.
Three things. (1) Log every settlement by channel in Duitful so you have a real fee baseline. (2) When your bank's relationship manager mentions "tokenised settlement" or "DLT-based corridors," ask to be in the early cohort. (3) Don't switch processors based on vendor pitches — wait for your existing bank to ship it as a standard offering.
Card, DuitNow QR, e-wallet, GIRO, and now tokenised-deposit rails — fees and timing differ on each. Tag channel as a Category in Duitful and Reports tells you which channel is bleeding margin. Free to start, RM 19.90 one-time for Pro.
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