Malaysia’s digital asset calendar has been busy this year.
Banks and regulators have moved several ideas that used to live mostly in discussion papers into testing, while the rules governing parts of the market are changing at the same time.
Much of the work is still underway, which gives Luno‘s Institutional Digital Asset Conference (LIDAC) plenty to work with when it returns on 24 September.
The second edition of LIDAC brings it back to Kuala Lumpur in 2026, which is set to gather more than 600 people from finance, government and digital assets at M Resort Hotel.
Several speakers have been directly involved in the projects and policy changes on the agenda.
Fresh Rules Put Regulation High on the Agenda
Trading value across Malaysia’s regulated digital asset exchanges reached RM17.14 billion in 2025, up 23% from RM13.93 billion the year before.
Malaysia’s Securities Commission linked that growth to rising institutional participation before revising its exchange framework on 20 May.
Operators can now list eligible digital assets without seeking the SC’s approval for each one, while taking on stricter requirements around investor asset safeguards and their own financial standing.
Those rules will have been in force for barely four months when LIDAC26 opens.
Dr Wong Huei Ching, the SC’s Executive Director for Digital Strategy and Innovation, takes the stage at 11:00 am to cover the new listing regime, the regulatory sandbox and the SC’s approach to tokenised securities and institutional participation.
For exchange operators, fund managers and compliance teams, there should be plenty worth asking while the new framework is still settling in.
Standard Chartered and Maybank Bring Live Pilots to the Stage
Malaysia’s banking experiments give the afternoon sessions something more concrete to discuss.
Bank Negara Malaysia‘s Digital Asset Innovation Hub (DAIH) has three initiatives under test this year involving ringgit stablecoins and tokenised deposits for domestic and cross-border wholesale payments.
Some use cases are examining Shariah considerations as well.
Governor Datuk Seri Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour said in February that the central bank had received around 30 to 35 applications involving stablecoins and other digital asset innovations altogether.
Standard Chartered Malaysia and Capital A are behind one of the three initiatives.
They signed a letter of intent in December 2025 to explore a ringgit stablecoin through BNM’s hub, with Standard Chartered proposed as issuer.
The bank appears twice on the LIDAC programme.
John Ho, Head of Legal and Financial Markets, gives a 2:45 pm keynote on taking tokenised money beyond pilot projects, while Gerard Ang, Malaysia Head of Financing and Securities Services, joins the stablecoin panel later that afternoon.
Maybank, on the other hand, has already completed the first transaction under its own pilot.
Working with Yinson Holdings, the bank ran a tokenised deposit transaction on 25 March that converted ringgit to Singapore dollars on-chain before settling the cross-border payment in near real time over its permissioned blockchain.
Andrew Leelarthaepin, Maybank’s Head of Business Product, closes the conference with a case study on the bank’s tokenisation work and participation in BNM’s hub.
Attendees can therefore get into the operational questions quite quickly.
A Local Case Study for Tokenisation
Capital markets have an example of their own.
Khazanah Nasional and the SC priced Malaysia’s first tokenised sukuk on 28 April, a RM100 million issuance using distributed ledger technology to create what the SC calls a “digital twin” of the underlying instrument.
CIMB served as sole principal adviser, lead arranger and facility agent on the deal.
One of LIDAC’s afternoon breakouts will examine the practical work involved in tokenising securities and real-world assets across Malaysia and the wider region.
Speakers include Kenanga’s Ranjit Gill, Satori Research’s Teong Hng and Halogen Capital Co-Founder Lucas Ooi.
Khazanah’s issuance gives that discussion a domestic transaction to examine rather than a hypothetical model.
A Distinctly Malaysian Take on Shariah
The sukuk also creates a natural link to another part of the programme as Malaysia has deep experience structuring and regulating Shariah-compliant capital market products.
Distributed ledger technology brings fresh questions around certification, governance and how new infrastructure works within existing requirements.
A dedicated breakout brings together the SC’s Dr Azrul Azlan Iskandar Mirza, Amanie Advisors Chief Executive Suhaida Mahpot and Sharlife Shariah Adviser Arham Merican.
Their discussion will cover tokenised sukuk, crypto fund certification and programmable Islamic finance.
It is one of the areas where a Kuala Lumpur digital asset conference can have a conversation grounded quite specifically in the Malaysian market.
What Else Is on the Agenda?
Stablecoins and tokenisation take up plenty of room, although they are far from the whole programme.
A morning panel on institutional adoption brings together Halogen Capital, Luno and Monochrome Asset Management, while a compliance discussion features Maybank Group Chief Compliance Officer Inn Sann Yiow alongside AmBank‘s Faradina Ghouse.
After lunch, former Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Prof Dr Ong Kian Ming looks at digital assets against the current macroeconomic backdrop.
Institutional custody gets its own session with Gambit Custody, BitGo and Anchorage Digital, while UOB and Franklin Templeton are among the names contributing regional and institutional perspectives elsewhere in the programme.
Malaysian founders will then get the final panel with Jupiter’s Siong Ong, CoinGecko’s Bobby Ong and Etherscan’s Matthew Tan who will discuss building products that have found users well beyond Malaysia.
The breadth should make the day particularly useful for institutions still deciding where digital assets fit into their business.
Depending on the problem they are trying to solve, the person they need to meet could be a regulator, custodian, fund manager or bank already testing the technology.
Attending LIDAC Kuala Lumpur 2026
LIDAC26 is aimed at institutional fund managers, financial advisers, regulators, compliance leaders and Web3 representatives.
Its September date gives attendees a chance to hear about several Malaysian projects while the work is still developing, with BNM expected to provide greater clarity on ringgit stablecoins and tokenised deposits by the end of 2026.
LIDAC Kuala Lumpur 2026 is set to take place on Thursday, 24 September, from 8:15 am to 6:00 pm at M Resort Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, with more than 600 participants to be expected.
Don’t miss out on this HRDC claimable opportunity by September 9 and gain CPD points from AICB, FIMM, and CPA Australia.
Reserve your spot today with a 50% discount exclusively for Fintech News Network readers with promo code: LIDAC26FNM.
Register now:
Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Malaysia based on an image by Daniel_R via Magnific.
