The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced a S$220 million, roughly $173 million, fund aimed at supporting the country’s fintech ecosystem.

 

The fund, which is part of Singapore’s renewed Financial Sector Technology and Innovation Scheme (FSTI 4.0), aims to strengthen the country’s fintech sector and accelerate innovation and technology adoption across its financial sector.

 

According to MAS, FSTI 4.0 is designed around four main goals: scaling innovation across Singapore, accelerating financial technology adoption, developing technology infrastructure to support innovation, and supporting talent development.

 

To support the implementation of FSTI 4.0, MAS said the scheme will be implemented across six tracks covering different areas, including institutional innovation, artificial intelligence adoption, platforms, and talent development.

 

Singapore has consistently ranked among the leading global fintech hubs. With more than 1,800 fintech companies, the country recorded approximately $2.3 billion in fintech investment in 2025.

 

Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, Vietnam’s new crypto penalty rules, officially known as Decree No. 284/2026/ND-CP, will take effect on September 1. The decree establishes administrative fines for violations of the country’s crypto asset regulations.

 

Some of the key provisions include fines of up to VND 200 million, roughly $7,700, for organizations and VND 100 million, roughly $3,800, for individuals who violate the country’s digital asset rules.

 

Providing crypto asset services or advertising such services without approval from Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance may attract a fine of up to VND 180 million to VND 200 million, roughly $7,000. Meanwhile, domestic investors who trade outside licensed platforms may face fines of VND 30 million to VND 50 million, roughly $1,100 to $1,900.

 

OpenFX, a fintech infrastructure startup founded by Prabhakar Reddy, co-founder of crypto brokerage company FalconX, has raised $94 million to expand its stablecoin-based cross-border foreign exchange (FX) payment rails.

 

The Series A round, which took place in March, was led by Accel and Atomico, with other investors including Lightspeed Faction, M13, Northzone, and Pantera participating.

 

 

The $94 million raised is aimed at expanding OpenFX’s presence in Latin America. Despite the region being a challenging market to enter, OpenFX reported strong success during a test deployment in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina.

 

“Within six weeks, LATAM became our highest-volume region. We had succeeded at scale where so many other players were still struggling with proof of concepts,” the company said.

 

The team attributes its success in the region to its ability to deliver liquidity globally, quickly, and reliably, as well as its deep understanding of what payment service providers (PSPs) and remittance providers require.

 

OpenFX also plans to expand into Southeast Asia. Despite the region having some of the world’s more developed payment systems, cross-border payments remain slow and fragmented. By building a deep liquidity infrastructure, OpenFX aims to address this issue and has said it will be launching in Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.

 

With these expansion plans underway, OpenFX will extend its presence beyond the United States, United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and India, where it currently operates.

 

The Team’s Progress So Far

Since its launch in 2024, the OpenFx cross-border infrastructure has processed billions of dollars, with an annualized processing volume of $45 billion.

 

In its first month of operation, the team says it processed $500,000. Eight weeks later, that figure had grown to $500,000 per week. Three months after launch, it was processing $500,000 per day, and today it processes approximately $500,000 per minute, with 98% of transactions settling in under 60 minutes.

 

The team also says it has onboarded more than 100 global institutional clients to its platform, including fintechs, neobanks, remittance platforms, and payroll processors.

 

OpenFx has now raised a total of $117 million, including $23 million in 2025 in a funding round led by Accel.