Southeast Asian e-Hailing Giant Grab Brings Crypto Payments to Singapore

Grab, Southeast Asia’s leading e-hailing and food app, is now letting Grab Pay users in Singapore to seamlessly top up their e-wallet balances using cryptocurrencies.

In partnership with digital assets payment provider Triple-A, Grab integrated the feature on March 12, the Straits Times reported. Triple-A, which raised $10 million in Series A funding on October, secured license from the Singapore regulator – MAS – in 2021.

The superapp has introduced five cryptocurrencies at present – Bitcoin, Ether, USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT) and Singapore dollar-backed stablecoin XSGD.

Source: Grab

“From arranging deliveries to booking rides or paying for coffee at their nearest shop, digital currency owners in Singapore can now use digital currencies for everyday transactions,” Triple-A wrote.

Grab has made the process simple enough by enabling users to send their crypto to a wallet provided by Grab or through a QR code.

Grab first ventured into the Web3 space in September, in partnership with global payments firm behind USDC stablecoin, Circle. The partnership enabled Singapore users to create a blockchain-enabled wallet to earn rewards and collect NFT vouchers.

Later in October, Grab added support for a Polygon-based Web3 wallet, created in collaboration with MAS. However, the initiative was a “short pilot” and lasted until the end of 2023.

Founded in 2012, Grab has 180 million users and serves over 500 cities in eight Southeast Asian countries.

Payments Using Crypto in Singapore Isn’t New

Singapore’s first carpooling app, Ryde, embarked Bitcoin payments in 2020. The company let users store and convert Bitcoin to the company’s RydeCoin with zero transaction costs.

Back then, Ryde claimed that it was the world’s first and only cryptocurrency wallet that allows users to pay for rides using bitcoin within its own e-wallet.

However, Ryde wasn’t the first to introduce crypto payments for ride-sharing. In 2018, Fold, welcomed Uber as a partner, users to pay for Uber rides with bitcoin through an integration.

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