• Alvin Foo, Venture Partner at Zero2Launch


• 27.10.2025 01:00 pm
#Tokenization #WholesaleSettlement

What does MiCA, the European digital assets law, really do for global economy? Finally, a cross-border fintech firm seems to give an answer--and it's not about sensational speculation, but about bringing fintech to the corporate treasury sector.  

In September, Ant International gained an EMT (E-Money Token) approval from Luxembourg under MiCA to issue wholesale settlement tokens among affiliates for its own treasury operations. Designed for intra-enterprise treasury purposes, these settlement tokens are pegged to the euro, backed 100% by bank reserves and operate on existing inter-bank infrastructure in designated wholesale payment scenarios. 

The approval underlines the fundamental distinction between wholesale settlement tokens and stablecoins in Web3 context. Wholesale EMTs enable financial institutions to move funds efficiently and compliantly across their own networks. As Kelvin Li from Ant International said in a LinkedIn post, “We don't intend to issue any stablecoins. This is going to be a wholesale settlement token issued only to our own affiliates, solely for our own global operations to improve our own internal operation efficiency. In short, not for individuals or merchants, not for speculation, can't be traded on the exchanges. Not a stablecoin.” 

Enterprise-level shifts seem to be bubbling up to industry level too. Recently, SWIFT and 30 banks announced plan to develop a shared digital ledger, with initial focus on settlement tokens in real-time 24/7 cross-border payments. All signs point to a fascinating transformation of the world of wholesale payments as well as industry understanding of tokenization. 

Underneath the buzzing world of consumer and merchant payments, the wholesale settlement layer between financial institutions is the silent foundation of global economy. It is huge: wholesale represents USD 155 trillion, or 80% of total global cross-border payments in 2024. 

For decades, the wholesale settlement layer rests on a network of key global banks connected by Swift. It is mature, stable, but also increasingly expensive and slow in contrast to the breakneck speed of global commerce. 

Naturally, change occurs where it hurts most: global firms with large daily cross-border settlement needs watching their own money stall in the system for days and over expensive fees. The EMT approval given to Alipay Europe S.A., the EU entity of Ant International, represents an industry turn towards blockchain technologies for a solution. 

Ant International (not to be confused with Alipay), is a Singapore-based cross-border payment facilitator spun off from Ant Group in 2023. With 30 offices around the world, it covers cross-border payments in and out of Asia Pacific for merchants and fintechs in over 100 currencies and hundreds of mainstream and alternative payment methods. Its vast volume of internal funds flow everyday across the world’s most fragmented and volatile currency markets. 

As a result, Ant International has started building a proprietary blockchain treasury mechanism called Whale since at least 2023. Blockchain technology makes it possible to build a settlement protocol between institutions. With distributed ledger technology, intra-entity transfer across the world can be real-time, 24/7, and transparent. 

In 2024, the company began expanding application of tokenized deposits for internal treasury management with multiple banks, including HSBC, JPMorgan and DBS.  Media reported that one third of its own funds flow now goes through Whale. A wholesale settlement token seems a natural extension of the fintech’s treasury strategy. 

This new regulated wholesale tokenization dimension of MiCA, as well as Swift's new move, is not a Great Leap Forward for the crypto sphere, it is a long overdue step ahead for the wholesale settlement industry, beginning within corporate treasury office of the world’s most diversified cross-border businesses like Ant International. 

These developments will have far-reaching effects: When money movements across borders within global financial giants and across banks become cheaper, safer and faster in a regulated environment, eventually merchants and consumers on the ground will benefit. Global economy, especially its emerging markets, gains new resilience. Wholesale tokenization might be the most important route for blockchain finance to go.

Caption: Ant International's Digital Business Centre in Malaysia