XREX Inc (鏈科), which provides blockchain cross-border payment solutions, yesterday said that it is applying for registration in Canada and a license in Singapore to expand its global presence.
The Taipei-based company currently provides payment solutions for companies that do business with India or people who need to remit money to India.
Its service helps customers exchange Indian rupees to digital cryptocurrencies or stable coins such as USDT, at a rate of 1:1 to the US dollar
Photo courtesy of CDIB Capital Innovation Accelerator Fund
XREX has submitted its application for a money service business registration in Canada and for a license to offer cryptoservices in Singapore, and is waiting to have interviews with the regulators, CEO Wayne Huang (黃耀文) told a media briefing in Taipei.
The company applied to offer services such as cross-border payment services, currency swaps and custody, Huang said.
XREX expects its registration application in Canada to be approved in the first quarter of next year and to receive a license in Singapore in the second quarter at the earliest, he said.
Although some companies or cryptotrading platforms have failed to obtain a license or registration in the two markets, XREX is optimistic about its application given its solid practices in information security and anti-money laundering (AML), two issues that concern regulators the most, it said.
The company has implemented know-your customer from the start of its operations and meets the AML rules set by the Financial Action Task Force, chief revenue officer Winston Hsiao (蕭匯宗) said.
XREX is expanding to the two markets as many of its corporate clients have set up branches in Singapore and many of its retail clients are Indians working in Canada.
The company also expects to seek more partners in new markets, Huang said.
“It is our goal to gain all kinds of regulatory permissions in 2022. It is good to see regulators pay attention and implement more regulatory schemes for the crypto industry to make it more solid,” Huang said.
For the local market, XREX is considering including the New Taiwan dollar in its operations next year to serve Taiwanese traders operating in India who have found it difficult to exchange rupees into foreign currencies in the South Asian nation due to highly volatile exchange rates and the high threshold set for foreign-exchange transactions, it said.
XREX is in talks with the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (外貿協會), which has shown an interest in XREX’s solution, it said.
It plans to launch a digital asset program next year called “staking,” a way for cryptocurrency owners to earn rewards by providing their digital assets for use by the platform, or for those who have lots of digital assets, but do not want to cash out yet, he said.
XREX, with paid-in capital of US$24.3 million, expects revenue to continue rising next year due to strong demand.
It in August closed a US$17 million Pre-A round financing, with investors including SBI Investment Co and the National Development Fund (國發基金), it said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading