Southeast Asia

The tariff anniversary week that mattered wasn’t for what it revealed about factories. It was for what it revealed about the alternative architecture Southeast Asia has been quietly building.

The week Vietnam simultaneously arrested crypto founders and advanced its licensing framework — revealing the enforcement logic underneath Southeast Asia’s financial ‘opening’ moments.

The week stablecoins became boring, Vietnam asserted control over $200 billion in offshore crypto flows, and two events on the same day captured everything awkward about banking’s AI transition.

This week: Kredivo buys its way into Vietnam via the Timo acquisition, an IMF report confirms Thailand leads ASEAN in digital payments while scam losses mount, and Grab’s proposed voting rights restructure raises hard governance questions for the region’s largest super-app.

Three signals from one week: Vietnam becomes SEA’s first country with a binding AI law, Money20/20’s APAC report declares the region has moved from pilots to production, and the UBS OneASEAN Summit puts 4.9% GDP growth on the record.

DBS-Visa AI agent payments, the Philippines’ dual IPO race, and Indonesia’s new digital innovation hub all point to the same quiet shift: Southeast Asia is building financial infrastructure, not just fintech apps.