StraitsX, a Singapore-based digital assets platform, has announced the launch of the StraitsX Indonesian Rupiah (XIDR), its second stablecoin in Southeast Asia (SEA).

StraitsX said in a statement, each XIDR token is fully-backed by one Indonesian Rupiah and will be supported by partners in the StraitsX ecosystem.

According to the statement, XIDR is the first Indonesian Rupiah denominated stablecoin on both the Ethereum and Zilliqa blockchain with each XIDR backed by one Indonesian Rupiah that is being held and safeguarded in a regulated financial institution in Indonesia.

XIDR will be issued by PT Xfers StraitsX Indonesia, which is an Indonesian subsidiary of Fazz Financial Group. The Fazz Financial Group has obtained licenses for e-money issuance and fund transfer from Bank Indonesia.

Aligned with Fazz Financial Group’s mission to empower the local community and promote the adoption of digital finance, StraitsX offers users an alternative way to perform financial transactions on behalf of the unbanked and underbanked customers.

Cited a study by Google, Head of StraitsX Aymeric Salley said, the unbanked citizens still account for 66 percent of Indonesia’s 260 million population.

Coupled with Indonesia’s tremendous growth in the FinTech, blockchain and digital assets space, and strong demand for a trusted and compliant Indonesian Rupiah denominated stablecoin, he opined that XIDR presents a way for the unbanked population to gain access to financial services.

“It also represents our next step to enabling, democratising and accelerating access to digital assets for individuals and businesses in Asia and beyond,” he said.

According to the statement, XIDR aims to be the most cost-effective Indonesian Rupiah stablecoin, where minting and redemption of XIDR with IDR is available via the StraitsX platform for free, and where outbound on-chain transaction fees are capped.

Riding on the success of XSGD, the first Singapore dollar denominated stablecoin that becoming the largest non-USD denominated fiat-backed stablecoin, XIDR also aims to become the standard for Indonesian Rupiah denominated stablecoins.

The statement also noted, in October, the StraitsX platform had surpassed the SG$2 billion ($1.46 billion) mark in digital assets-related transactions in 2021 alone.

The growth in transactions is a reflection of the increasing interest in digital assets and decentralised financial applications, it said.

It also said, StraitsX aims to replicate the success of XSGD in 2021 with the introduction of XIDR where users can leverage the stablecoin to send Indonesian Rupiah on the blockchain in a trusted and secure manner without the need for a third party clearing agent.

Users can also transfer, spend and receive XIDR with StraitsX’s expanding list of ecosystem partners, it added.

The release of XIDR will be supported by many of StraitsX’s existing partners, including exchanges, wallets, institutional custody solutions, DeFi platforms, and blockchain analytics tools and new partners. StraitsX is striving to secure more partnerships to bring in support for XIDR.

It said, Indonesian residents can sign up for a StraitsX account and obtain XIDR tokens by transferring Indonesian Rupiah into their bank account. XIDR will always be convertible one-for-one with the Indonesian Rupiah on the StraitsX platform.

StraitsX is the pioneering payments infrastructure for the digital assets space in Southeast Asia developed by Singapore-based FinTech Xfers, a major payment institution licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore for e-money issuance. StraitsX offers personal and business accounts to mint and redeem StraitsX stablecoins, manage payments as well as connect their accounts to digital asset platforms. Business accounts can also access business to business (B2B) application programming interface (API)-enabled payments rails for digital asset platforms.

Xfers’ digital assets platform StraitsX hits $1.48B in transactions in 2021