Harmony to Launch its First Non-US Stablecoin with Indonesia’s Rupiah Token
After Binance US-dollar stablecoin BUSD, Harmony is launching a fully audited and fiat-backed stablecoin with Indonesia’s Rupiah Token.
Rupiah tokens on Harmony will enable real-time settlement for cross-border payments. Harmony recently launched a US dollar stablecoin BUSD with Binance and is building a fintech ecosystem to drive payments in the US-India corridor.
Launching an Indonesian fiat-backed stablecoin builds upon our cross-border payments strategy, allowing local fintech and remittance companies to leverage these stablecoins for global payments. These stablecoins are fully-regulated and have fiat on/off-ramp support through digital asset exchanges and local partners.
Using local or regional stablecoins that can be instantly settled on a scalable blockchain is key to faster and cheaper global payments, especially for regional b2b and e-commerce transactions in South-East Asia.
About the Indonesian Rupiah Token
The Indonesian Rupiah Token has a daily trading volume of $10 billion IDRT and is available on Binance, UpBit, Liquid, Pintu, and Changelly. It has a circulating supply of $64 billion IDRT ($4.5 million USD). The ERC20 version of IDRT is currently available on non-custodial wallets such as Argent, Trust Wallet, Opera, MyEtherWallet. The circulating supply of IDRT token is audited monthly by an independent auditor and its results are publicly available for full transparency.
While the ERC20 token standard has been a tremendous innovation and success, the rising fees on the Ethereum network have been a barrier for the token to be widely adopted for cross-border transactions. Indonesia, with a population of more than 264 million citizens and an average age of 30, is an ideal market to test how blockchain could transform the local payments marketplace. Harmony will have a first-mover advantage in this and neighboring corridors.
Indonesia has experienced tremendous growth in e-commerce and fintech innovation, and is now developing a favorable digital asset and blockchain ecosystem. Cross-border payments is a real and visible use case in Indonesia. According to a recent survey, Indonesia’s e-payments sector is expecting 50 percent year-on-year growth with its value is set to reach US$35 billion in 2020, up from $23 billion in 2019.
Opportunity for Harmony in Indonesia
We see this partnership as the first step in building a strong cross-border payments value proposition in Indonesia and Asia.
Once we launch Rupiah token on Harmony, users will be able to enjoyinstant and low-cost payment transactions. With the support of Rupiah Token’s infrastructure and banking partnerships, users can easily convert fiat to stablecoin. This helps Harmony with fiat-on ramp for stable currencies for local users.
We will also engage fintech startups in the payments and traditional remittance space to start using the Rupiah Token as a way to make or receive global payments.
Harmony and Rupiah Token will work with local startups such as digital wallets, e-commerce providers, and fintech enterprises to provide instant settlement to IDRT payments, with fees that are more competitive than any other payment network in the country.
Next Steps
Rupiah Token on Harmony will provide fintech startups with instant liquidity, competitive currency exchange fees, and accounts (no pre-funding required) for settlement. Rupiah Token will be one of the three initially released currencies, along with the Indian Rupee and USD dollar.
In the coming months, we will host a hackathon to build more applications using HRC20 IDRT to serve a diverse market — a nation where approximately 580 languages are spoken on 6,000 inhabited islands.
Stephen Tse, Harmony’s CEO says: “We are excited to expand in booming markets like Indonesia, where the pain points of cross-border finance are most felt. Rupiah Token is a trusted partner opening the gates for stablecoins in the Indonesian corridors. They bring a great combination of a reliable local fintech infrastructure and new age stable digital assets, like the Rupiah Token.”
Shabrina Adani, Director of Rupiah Token added: “We believe this partnership will bring greater success to Rupiah Token as the first Indonesian stablecoin and Harmony as a strong technology foundation. We are confident that this partnership can serve Indonesian users not only in the natural on/off-ramp solution to global exchanges, but also to use and transfer their Rupiah anywhere in the world.”
If you are building a startup in the Indonesian market and are interested in learning how Harmony and RupiahToken can solve payment challenges, you may reach out to sahil@harmony.one.
Sahil Dewan
Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer
