StraightsX is making a massive bet on non-US dollar stablecoins that could offer little value.
For example, CoinMarketCap gave the StraitsX Indonesian Rupiah (XIDR) stablecoin a Coin Price of $0.00006766 on 18 April 2023. The XIDR is a stablecoin that makes payment in Indonesia’s fiat currency, the Rupiah. Strangely, the XIDR accurately pegs to the Rupiah. A Rupiah was trading for $0.000067 US Dollars on 18 April 2023.
CoinMarketCap gave the XIDR a $7.706 million Market Cap, a $7.715 million Fully Diluted Market Capitalization, and a 24-Hour Market Volume of $80,372 on 18 April 2023. Conversely, XIDR had a Centralized Exchange (CEX) volume of $19,683 and a Decentralized Exchange (DEX) Volume of $60,689 on 18 April 2023. They base those numbers on a Self-Reported Circulating Supply of 113.902 billion XIDR.
What Value does the XIDR Stablecoin offer?
Indonesia’s size could create an enormous market for the XIDR. For example, Indonesia had a population of 281.795 million in April 2023, Worldometers estimates.
Indonesia has the world’s seventh largest economy with $4.811 trillion in purchasing power parity, World Economics estimates. Conversely, Indonesia was the 17th largest economy with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $1.289 trillion in 2022, Population U estimates.
Moreover, Indonesia has a large middle class of 52 million people, EastAsiaForum estimates. The Indonesian economy grew by 5.31% in 2022, the National Statistics Agency estimates. Indonesians bought almost one million vehicles in 2021 and 2022.
Thus, XIDR is a stablecoin that could serve an enormous market. Conversely, XIDR’s value is low because of the Rupiah’s small price.
What is the XIDR Stablecoin?
The StraitsX Indonesian Rupiah (XDR) is a stablecoin that runs on the Ethereum, Polygon, and Ziliqa blockchains.
They claim users can make fast low-cost transfers of XIDR over those blockchains. XIDR transfers could be cheap because no wire services or third-party agents are involved.
Hence, they can use XIDR for remittances. Remittances are money Indonesians working overseas send back home. This could be an extensive business. Indonesians received $9.4 billion in remittances in 2021, Statista estimates. The value of Indonesian remittances fell from $11.67 billion in 2019 and $9.65 billion in 2020.
Theoretically, people could use StraitsX to buy USD Coin (USDC) remittances. StraitsX could convert the remittances into XIDR people could make purchases with in Indonesia. Moreover, you could cash XIDR out for Rupiah at ATMs.
Remittances can be expensive because most people need to wire money through companies such as Western Union. Theoretically, XIDR can move money at a low cost through the blockchain. Furthermore, they claim you can leverage XIDR in many Decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocols.
StraitsX
Importanlty, StraitsX, the organization that issues XIDR is a Major Payment Institution licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The Monetary Authority is Singapore’s central bank.
StraitsX builds stablecoins and DeFi infrastructures. In particular, StraitsX gives businesses application programming interfaces (APIs) that connect stablecoins to digital asset platforms. StraitsX claims its solutions have over 200,000 users. Additionally, StraitsX claims it has processed five billion Singapore dollars ($3.75 billion) worth of digital assets transactions.
Straits offers two stablecoins the XIDR and the StraitsX Singapore Dollar (XSGD). It also offers StraitsX personal Accounts StraitsX Business Accounts, Virtual bank accounts, and International Bank Transfers.
StraitsX Accounts
They claim StraitsX accounts can earn up to 4% in annual percentage yield (APY) on XSGD or 2% APY in USD Coin (USDC) stablecoins. Plus, they claim the accounts support unlimited transfers of XSGD or USDC. StraitsX claims the accounts have no minimum balance, and on management fees or hidden fees.
They claim StraitsX account holders can receive Singapore Dollars and Rupiah through SWIFT. SWIFT is the messaging system financial institutions use for international transfers. In particular, SWIFT is the system banks use to send money to each other. Hence, StraitsX claims to offer stablecoins linked to SWIFT and the global banking system.
StraitsX works with many partners. For example, it works with paywong, Request, and Sablier for payments and invoicing. StraitsX supports DeZy, findblox, and Tokenize Exchange lending. Finally, StraitsX offers 1inch, Demex, DFX, HaloDAO, Uniswap, Xcad Netwokr and ZilSwap liquidty mining.
What is StraitsX?
I think StraitsX is a blockchain bank that supports stablecoins. Importantly, they base StraitsX in one of the world’s leading financial centers, Singapore.
Singapore was the world’s sixth most attractive financial center in 2022, Statista estimates. Notably, Singapore is Southeast Asia’s financial hub. In particular, Singapore offers deep capital markets and wealth management.
Hence, StraitsX could be a leader in the development of non-dollar stablecoins. Notably, StraitsX is building stablecoins for lesser currencies that achieve wide use.
What Value do Non-US Dollar Stablecoins Offer?
StraitsX estimates users had made 7.469 billion XSGD in transactions as of 17 April 2023. Plus, StraitsX gave XSGD a Total Supply of 88.391 million XSGD.
The StraitsX Singapore Dollar (XSGD) was CoinMarketCap’s 364th ranked cryptocurrency with a 75.77₵ Coin Price on 18 April 2023. XSGD had a $66.838 million Market Capitalization, a $63.383 million Fully Diluted Market Cap, and a 24-Hour Market Volume of $2.024 on 18 April 2023.
There was also a Centralized Exchange (CEX) volume of $27,594 and a Decentralized Exchange (DEX) volume of $2.024 million. They base those numbers on a Circulating Supply of 88.391 million XGSD and a Total Supply of 83.617 million XGSD.
I think XSGD’s Circulating Supply shows there is a market for non-US Dollar. However, the value of the underlying currencies will limit those stablecoins’ value.
Hence, non-dollar stablecoins will be a useful payments mechanism that can generate income for their issuers. However, I think XSDIR shows non-dollar stablecoins may have little value for spectators.
