SGB announces zero-fee Solana service for USDC, USDT clients

Singapore Gulf Bank (SGB) has announced the launch of a new service that allows clients to mint and redeem stablecoins directly on the Solana blockchain with no fees for a limited launch period. 

The regulated digital bank announced this move at the Solana Breakpoint 2025 event in Abu Dhabi. The product allows SGB’s corporate clients to convert fiat into major stablecoins, including USDC and USDT on Solana, and redeem them back to fiat.

The launch programme waives both transaction and gas fees for clients using Solana for these operations. At first, the service will only be available to SGB’s corporate treasury operations and cross-border business flows. Later, it will be available to personal banking customers as well.

SGB’s new service connects regulated banking with blockchain rails

Since its market entry, SGB has processed more than $7 billion in transactions. Adding on-chain minting and redemption aims to make financial transactions easier and smoother for clients doing business in these areas.

SGB’s new service connects regulated banking with blockchain rails. Clients are allowed to create or destroy stablecoins directly on Solana, without moving assets through intermediaries. To that end, Solana’s high throughput and relatively low on-chain costs will facilitate high-volume, real-time transfers that would otherwise be slow and expensive through conventional banking systems.

Shawn Chan, Chief Executive Officer of SGB, stated, “The adoption of stablecoins by regulated banks reflects their growing real-world utility. By leveraging Solana’s speed and cost advantages, we are providing our clients across the GCC and Asian markets with a bank-grade compliant stablecoin solution that finally makes real-time, cross-border and cross-counterparty transactions viable for corporates.”

This program comes after the advent of SGB Net. This platform was made to speed up settlements and make managing liquidity easier across both fiat and crypto channels.

Additionally, SGB announced a partnership with digital asset infrastructure provider Fireblocks to support secure digital asset custody and treasury operations. This partnership allowed SGB to offer institutional-grade custody for crypto and stablecoins, backed by multi-party computation (MPC) cryptography and secure wallet infrastructure.

Besides SGB, other regulated banks and financial infrastructure firms have also been expanding stablecoin services. As reported by Cryptopolitan, DBS and others have explored stablecoin custody and issuance frameworks. 

Additionally, networks like the Global Dollar Network and platforms like Fireblocks facilitate secure and stablecoin transactions, as well as bank integrations.

Singapore’s Payment Services Act and the MAS framework take the lead

Southeast Asia received approximately $80 billion in remittances last year, with average fees exceeding 6%. According to internal trials, SGB’s Solana corridor cut effective costs to under 0.3% while settling in seconds. Solana currently hosts over $5 billion in stablecoin liquidity and processes 65,000 transactions per second at sub-cent costs.

The service operates under Singapore’s Payment Services Act and the MAS framework for single-currency stablecoins. All minted tokens are backed 1:1, with USDC reserves independently attested monthly by Grant Thornton.

Meanwhile, the total stablecoin market cap surpassed $300 billion. This represents a 75% increase from the same period a year earlier, according to a report from Morgan Stanley Investment Management. USDT supply surpassed $191 billion in 2025, with its user base reaching 500 million for the first time in October. Circle has around $78 billion of USDC in circulation.

According to Wall Street giant Citi, the stablecoin market is growing faster than expected. This prompted the bank to recently lift its 2030 forecast for issuance to $1.9 trillion in its base case and $4 trillion in a bull case, up from $1.6 trillion and $3.7 trillion, respectively.

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