Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has published a three-year roadmap to test asset tokenization across the country’s financial system, signaling its most detailed plan yet to modernize domestic capital markets. The central bank said the effort will run through its Digital Asset Innovation Hub (DAIH), which was established earlier this year to oversee blockchain and digital asset experiments.

According to a statement released Friday, the roadmap includes a series of proof-of-concept (POC) projects and live pilots that will explore tokenized financial instruments, digital settlement systems and new payment infrastructures. The central bank said the pilots are intended to generate “clear economic value” and to test interoperability with existing financial networks.

BNM has also set up an Asset Tokenization Industry Working Group (IWG), co-chaired with the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), to coordinate technical testing, gather feedback and assess legal and regulatory barriers. The group will bring together banks, fintech firms and market infrastructure providers to identify use cases that can transition to production.

Early Use Cases: Supply Chains and Islamic Finance

The roadmap specifies that BNM’s tokenization work will focus on real-world assets rather than cryptocurrencies. Initial applications include supply chain financing to improve SME credit access, tokenized liquidity management for faster settlement between institutions, and Islamic finance automation for Shariah-compliant contracts. Other areas under study include programmable payments, green finance and 24/7 cross-border settlement channels.

BNM said it will evaluate the introduction of MYR-denominated tokenized deposits and stablecoins to ensure they maintain what it called the “singleness of money”—the one-to-one parity between bank deposits and central bank liabilities. The roadmap also includes plans to test wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) integration for interbank settlement and cross-border payments. Malaysia’s DAIH will coordinate these trials with financial institutions and fintech partners under strict supervision.

The pilots are expected to inform how tokenized assets can coexist with traditional instruments under Malaysia’s regulatory and Shariah frameworks.

Part of a Wider Regional Push

BNM’s initiative comes as Asian regulators accelerate similar programs. Singapore’s Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has already launched Project Guardian to test tokenized bonds and funds, while Hong Kong’s Monetary Authority (HKMA) is conducting pilots on tokenized green bonds and stablecoins. BNM’s roadmap explicitly references these regional efforts as benchmarks.

Industry consultation on the roadmap will remain open until March 1, 2026. The central bank said it intends to use feedback from financial institutions and technology firms to prioritize use cases that can deliver measurable cost savings or improved access to capital for Malaysian businesses.

Regulatory Context and Next Steps

The new roadmap follows a series of policy moves to adapt Malaysia’s financial system to the digital asset era. In July, the Securities Commission proposed allowing licensed exchanges to list approved cryptocurrencies without prior regulatory approval, provided the assets have undergone security audits and at least one year of trading history on a FATF-compliant platform.

While the asset tokenization roadmap is not directly tied to cryptocurrency trading, it reflects the authorities’ effort to align Malaysia’s capital markets with the next phase of financial technology. The framework will test how tokenized instruments could be used in traditional financing and Islamic banking, where automation and transparency are increasingly in demand. BNM’s consultation paper and pilot results are expected to guide new licensing frameworks for tokenized financial services starting in 2026, placing Malaysia among Asia’s most active jurisdictions in regulated digital asset experimentation.