SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 7 November2019 - SoutheastAsia's leading FinTech platform for digital businesses, Xfers, has launched itsfirst blockchain-enabled initiative to further the goal of building an openfinancial ecosystem to enable financial inclusion in the region. With thelaunch of StraitsX, its pilot stablecoin initiative powered by Zilliqa, Xfersaims to create a frictionless and transparent payments ecosystem for SoutheastAsia.

In January 2019, Xfers obtained the approval forWidely Accepted Stored Value Facility (WA SVF) from the Monetary Authority ofSingapore (MAS)--the first digital wallet to do so. As the company continues onits vision of providing last-mile financialservices to the region, it boasts an extensive portfolio of clients includingdigital asset firms Binance Singapore, Coinhako and WoWoo Exchange, as well asmerchants serving the underbanked in Indonesia - PayFazz, Porter Indonesia andTunai Kita. Today, Xfers partners merchants to process over US$150 millionevery month, as they service a total of over 10 million unique active usersevery month across Singapore and Indonesia.

Creatingan Open Future of Money

Open banking has unlocked greater value in thebanking and financial services industry, enabling merchants to provide consumerservices such as online savings and payments without having to navigate throughtraditional banking touchpoints. As a result, consumers have easier access tofinancial products, and are able to participate in a greater range ofactivities, such as starting their own business--bringing about financialinclusion in a more cost- and time-efficient manner.

This is especially so in Southeast Asia, whereaccess to traditional banking services may sometimes be difficult outside ofurban areas. With over 630 million people calling Southeast Asia home, and amobile user penetration rate of over 140 percent, the region's digitalpopulation makes a promising customer base for digital payments, especially incommunities currently underserved by banks.

With the Asian Development Bank predicting digitalfinancial solutions to have significant impact on financial inclusion inSoutheast Asia, Xfers is leading the way with the launch of their StraitsXpilot initiative. Starting with XSGD, a token pegged 1:1 to the SingaporeDollar, these stablecoins will increase the level of transparency fortransactions, while also reducing friction to accessing financial products.This initiative will be supported by a number of early members, includingBinance Singapore, Coinhako, Coinut, Sparrow, Tokenize Xchange and WoWooExchange.

"Southeast Asia has a heterogeneous landscape,and Xfers wants to empower individuals and businesses to access financialopportunities regardless of their circumstances," said Tianwei Liu, Co-Founderand CEO, Xfers. "StraitsX demonstrates our willingness to adopt technology topropel our vision of building an open banking infrastructure for the region.With the transparency that blockchain provides, as well as the stablecoinsbeing price-pegged to local fiat currencies, StraitsX aims to be the commonledger for digital assets, payments, fund transfers and eCommerce."

BuildingFinancial Trust via a Distributed Ledger

Creating an open financial ecosystemthat fosters financial inclusion requires reliable and trusted innovation. Toremove friction and provide greater transparency, Xfers will be leveragingZilliqa's safe-by-design scriptinglanguage Scilla to provide smart contract functionalities.

Built for enterprise use, Zilliqa isa high-performance, high-security blockchain platform renowned for its use ofsharding as on-chain solution to preserve trust and enable greater scalability. To date, its blockchain isable to process 2,828 transactions per second. Through this partnership,Zilliqa's proprietary smart contract language, Scilla, will be critical toensuring the security of the underlying smart contracts of the Xfersstablecoins. Scilla is amenable to formal verification, thus providing enhancedsecurity for assets and transactions on the Zilliqa blockchain.

"We are excited for Xfers as they continue tomake inroads into Southeast Asia. Harnessing the features of our enterpriseblockchain, Xfers will be able to process a significant increase in usertransactions more securely at a scale than other present-day industry blockchainplatforms," said Amrit Kumar, President, Zilliqa. "Spurred on by the promise ofgreater financial inclusion, efficiencies and mobility, Zilliqa is proud tobuild on our existing partnership with Xfers to deliver on the shared promiseof progress."

"Industry players recognise our value, and withus serving over 10 million users every month, we are excited to deliver evenmore, especially for the underbanked across Southeast Asia," continued Liu.

Xfer'sstablecoin pilot is set to go live in December 2019, and interested parties canvisit https://xfers.com to find out more information and preboard withStraitsX.

About Xfers

Founded in 2015, Xfers is Southeast Asia'sleading Fintech platform for digital businesses -- aimed at enabling openbanking for Southeast Asia. It boasts a range of last-mile financial railsincluding the Xfers Wallet Kit, payments, financing and card issuance. Today,Xfers partners merchants to process over US$150 million every month, andservice a total of over 10 million unique active users every month acrossSingapore and Indonesia. In Singapore, Xfers is the first digital wallet to beapproved by the MonetaryAuthority of Singapore as a holder of a WidelyAccepted Stored Value Facility (WASVF). With this, the XfersWallet can is entitled to hold unlimited users' and merchants' stored value,and it joins the ranks of other WASVFs -- EZ-Link Card, NETS CashCard, NETSFlashpay, CapitaVoucher, and AliPay Merchant Services.

For more information, visit: https://www.xfers.com/

About Zilliqa:

Zilliqais a high-performance, high-security blockchain that powers next-generation enterprises andapplications. Developed from world-class academic research and helmed by a teamof experienced scientists, engineers, venture creators and leaders in thefinancial services, Zilliqa addresses limitations in scalability and security,enabling real-world usability across a variety of industries, includingfinance, digital advertising, and gaming. In January 2019, Zilliqa successfullylaunched its mainnet network, making it the first blockchain platform in theworld to successfully utilise sharding technology.

For more information, visit: zilliqa.com.