Stablecoins at the Singapore FinTech Festival take center stage on November 18, 2026. That afternoon, the Policy Stage in Hall 3 hosts officials and industry leaders from Europe, Thailand and
Stablecoins at the Singapore FinTech Festival take center stage on November 18, 2026. That afternoon, the Policy Stage in Hall 3 hosts officials and industry leaders from Europe, Thailand and Japan, according to the official agenda. There, they will also debate tokenized assets and programmable money. The 11th edition runs from November 18 to 20 at Singapore EXPO. So Cointribune reviews who speaks and which pass opens each session.
Singapore FinTech Festival x Cointribune partnership discount: 20% off with code SMP-DISC-20-COINTRIBUNE on every pass. Book your pass on the official registration page.
Three Policy Stage sessions on November 18 focus on stablecoins and tokenization, and a fourth covers programmable money. Then two more stablecoin sessions follow on November 19 and 20. The Policy Stage sits in Hall 3 and the FutureMatters Stage in Hall 5, according to the official agenda.
Our first preview of the festival covered the digital euro and Qivalis. This article, however, follows the sessions on stablecoins and tokenization.
Date and time Session Stage Pass Nov. 18, 1:30 pm Stablecoins: Can Europe Catch the Wind? Policy Open Nov. 18, 1:45 pm Stablecoins: From Fringe to Framework Policy Open Nov. 18, 2:15 pm RWA & Tokenization: When the Asset Becomes a Token, What Happens to the Rules? Policy Open Nov. 18, 3:30 pm Can Regulation Be Written Into Money Itself? Policy Open Nov. 18, 5:00 pm What Will Tokenised Markets Settle In? Ignite Open Nov. 19, 1:40 pm Stablecoins, Tokenized Deposits and Tokenized MMF: Which Money Earns a Place in the Stack? FutureMatters Premium Nov. 19, 5:00 pm Geoeconomics of Tokens: Lessons From Live Cross-Border Tokenized Corridors FutureMatters Premium Nov. 20, 2:15 pm Stablecoins and the Future of Corporate Treasury Frontier Premium Source: Singapore FinTech Festival official agenda, consulted on October 30, 2026.First, Howard Davies, chairman of the supervisory board of Qivalis, opens the debate at 1:30 pm on November 18. His talk asks whether Europe can catch the wind in stablecoins. Then comes a 30-minute panel at 1:45 pm. Peter Kerstens, advisor at DG FISMA of the European Commission, joins Nicole Sandler of Ubyx and Walter Hessert of Paxos. Gabriel Lee of GFTN moderates.
BTCUSDT chart by TradingViewThe panel title, “From Fringe to Framework”, matches the festival’s own message. According to its post of October 12, 2026, stablecoins are no longer a regulatory grey zone. So, in our reading, stablecoins at the Singapore FinTech Festival are now a question of frameworks, not experiments. Besides, regulators move at different speeds. To compare the Asian approaches, read our analysis of the stablecoin race in Asia. A stablecoin is a token pegged to a reference asset, usually the dollar or the euro, as explained in our introduction to cryptoassets.
Three sessions tackle it on November 18. RWA means real-world assets, such as bonds or funds, issued as tokens. First, at 2:15 pm, the Policy Stage asks what happens to the rules when an asset becomes a token. Nopnuanparn Pavasant of the SEC Thailand and Scott Bauguess of Coinbase speak, and Prof. Tālis Putniņš of DFCRC moderates.
Then, at 3:30 pm, a second panel asks whether regulation can be written into money itself. Eva Hüpkes of the International Association of Deposit Insurers, Ivan Odonnat of the Banque de France and Kazuki Ueda of the Bank of Japan take part. Vira Platonova of Visa moderates. Finally, at 5:00 pm, the Ignite Stage asks what tokenized markets will settle in. Barclays, Société Générale-FORGE and Kinexys by J.P. Morgan answer. Because tokenized assets cross borders, stablecoins at the Singapore FinTech Festival and tokenization share one question: which rules apply to the token?
Singapore, however, has already moved on the topic. At last year’s festival, the central bank chief said Singapore would trial tokenized MAS bills and bring in stablecoin laws, according to a Reuters report relayed by The Star. Also, our article on Singapore’s tokenized bond trials settled in CBDC gives the background. The organizers frame the 2026 programme with a short sentence from their press release of August 26, 2026:
Rewiring, handled well, is not just a risk.
MAS and GFTN, Singapore FinTech Festival 2026 press release, August 26, 2026
Issuers, banks and a regulator speak on November 19. At 1:40 pm, Humphrey Valenbreder of Partior, Khairi Azmi of Paxos and Lewis Sun of HSBC debate which money earns a place in the stack. Laura Loh of Temasek moderates this FutureMatters Stage session, while Paxos brings the issuer view.
Speaker Role Session Howard Davies Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Qivalis NV Stablecoins: Can Europe Catch the Wind? (Nov. 18) Peter Kerstens Advisor, DG FISMA, European Commission Stablecoins: From Fringe to Framework (Nov. 18) Walter Hessert Head of Strategy, Paxos Stablecoins: From Fringe to Framework (Nov. 18) Scott Bauguess Vice President, Global Regulatory & International Policy, Coinbase RWA & Tokenization (Nov. 18) and Live Cross-Border Tokenized Corridors (Nov. 19) Lewis Sun Managing Director, Global Head of Digital Currencies, HSBC Stablecoins, Tokenized Deposits and Tokenized MMF (Nov. 19) Alan Lim Director and Head, Financial Infrastructure & Artificial Intelligence Office, MAS Live Cross-Border Tokenized Corridors (Nov. 19) Source: Singapore FinTech Festival official agenda and speaker pages, consulted on October 30, 2026.Alan Lim of MAS also joins the 5:00 pm session on live cross-border tokenized corridors, with Chainlink, Kinexys by J.P. Morgan and Coinbase. Angela Ang of BitGo moderates. Earlier that day, at 1:30 pm, Emma Landriault of Kinexys Labs presents tokenization at scale and JPM Coin. Then, on November 20, Baskar Subramanian of Mobi closes the cycle with stablecoins and corporate treasury at 2:15 pm.
It depends on the label of each session. First, Open sessions, mostly on the Policy and Ignite stages, accept MeetUp and Trade Visitor passes. Second, Premium sessions, on the Festival, FutureMatters and Frontier stages, require a Delegate, Executive, Startup, Policy or Academic pass, according to the festival’s pass guide.
Pass Premium sessions Open sessions Delegate, Executive, Startup, Policy, Academic Yes Yes MeetUp No Yes Trade Visitor (free) No Yes Livestream Online only, for the Festival, FutureMatters, Frontier and Policy stages No Source: Singapore FinTech Festival, “Which Pass Gets You In” section of the agenda.In practice, the stablecoin and RWA sessions of November 18 on the Policy Stage are open to MeetUp and Trade Visitor holders too. By contrast, the November 19 panels with HSBC, Paxos and MAS sit on the FutureMatters Stage and need a Premium-eligible pass. Therefore a Delegate, Executive or Startup pass is the one that covers the whole stablecoin agenda, from regulators to operators.
Enter the code SMP-DISC-20-COINTRIBUNE on the official registration page to get 20% off. The discount applies to every pass, so you can choose the one that matches the sessions you want.
Two dates frame stablecoins at the Singapore FinTech Festival. November 18 belongs to the regulators, but November 19 belongs to the operators. Finally, our article on AI agents at the festival covers the other big debate of the week.
