🧵 UOB invested twice in Velo. @Visa announced a collaboration with @veloprotocol and @lightnetgroup. Stripe is adding TrueMoney. Orbit Plus connects to Mastercard through @Zebec_HQ. Now UOB, Visa, Stripe and Mastercard all participate in Singapore’s BLOOM initiative. Follow the connections. 👇 On October 23, MAS announced that the central banks of Thailand and Malaysia had joined BLOOM. Its focus: Cross-border settlement. Tokenized deposits. Regulated stablecoins. Interoperability. Common approaches for moving digital money across borders. @Visa, @Ripple and @Mastercard are among the new participants. UOB and @stripe were already involved, alongside Circle, Coinbase and J.P. Morgan. Several of these names have established connections across Southeast Asia’s payment ecosystem. Start with UOB. In September 2024, @veloprotocol announced a second strategic investment from UOB Venture Management. In January 2020, UOB Venture Management also co-led @lightnetgroup’s $31.2 million Series A. Capital supporting regional payment infrastructure years before BLOOM. Then there is Visa. In November 2020, Velo Labs, Lightnet and Visa announced a collaboration to develop payment solutions in Asia. The initiative targeted transactions between participating banks, money transfer operators and other financial service providers. Now the Bank of Thailand connection. @scb_thailand and Lightnet developed a cross-border payment solution using stablecoin settlement. SCB confirmed that it graduated from the central bank’s regulatory sandbox in October 2024 and was commercialized. Mastercard enters through the consumer side. Orbit Plus provides access to a Zebec card running on the Mastercard network. Users can fund it with USDC, BNB or VELO on BNB Smart Chain and add it to Apple Pay. Velo → Orbit Plus → @Zebec_HQ → Mastercard. The connection runs through Zebec’s card infrastructure, bringing digital assets into everyday spending. Now add Stripe. On August 25, Stripe announced plans to enable cross-border payments through TrueMoney and other regional payment methods, with availability planned for later in 2026. Global merchants gaining access to local ways to pay. TrueMoney is Ascend Money’s payment platform. Ascend Money is the fintech arm of @CPGroup_Live, with other investors including Ant Group and MUFG. Stripe → TrueMoney → Ascend Money → CP Group. And that CP connection extends into Malaysia. Lotus’s Malaysia joined CP Group in 2020. TrueMoney launched in Malaysia with Lotus’s in January 2023, offering payment acceptance across its then 65 stores. Retail distribution and digital payments were already connected locally. Now Bank Negara Malaysia has joined BLOOM alongside the Bank of Thailand. That adds regional context: these markets already have consumer wallets, merchant networks and cross-border payment businesses. BLOOM is working on how digital money can move between institutions and jurisdictions. Zoom out: UOB Venture Management → Velo + Lightnet investments. Visa → collaboration with Velo + Lightnet. SCB + Lightnet → stablecoin settlement after BOT sandbox testing. Orbit Plus + Zebec → Mastercard card access. Stripe + TrueMoney → payment acceptance. CP + Lotus’s + TrueMoney → Malaysian retail and payments. BLOOM’s work includes interoperability, identity checks, sanctions screening and transaction controls. @veloprotocol and @lightnetgroup are not named on its published membership list. The connections run through their relationships with participants. That is the overlap worth following. Investment. Payment networks. Local wallets. Retail distribution. Cross-border settlement. Several institutions connected to this regional ecosystem are now working within BLOOM on frameworks for digital money. The next question is how those frameworks translate into services people and businesses can use. And several familiar names are already there. 😉