This article first appeared in Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on February 23, 2026 - March 1, 2026

This is set to be a watershed year for the digital asset industry as the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) looks to liberalise the listing process for digital tokens by as early as the second quarter, following the anticipated release of the new Guidelines on Recognised Markets (RMO Guidelines) — Digital Asset Exchanges.

Investors could see the launch of many more digital assets at a much faster pace, potentially including meme coins, which are speculative in nature, exchange tokens issued by some of the world’s largest exchanges, and nascent tokens that have gained tremendous traction worldwide in a short period of time.

Industry players view such a move as a game changer, as it provides local digital asset exchanges (DAXs) with significant headroom to compete with global peers, while investors are given opportunities to diversify their crypto portfolios. But this is just half the story. Industry players believe the initiative aims to stem capital outflows and illegal transactions that have been happening on the ground through mule accounts.

It is important to note, however, that which digital assets can be listed — and which cannot — are still not set in stone. Industry players emphasise that the anticipated liberalisation initiative does not mean local DAXs will be free to list any product they choose. The regulator aims to empower DAXs in exchange for stronger governance controls, ensuring an orderly market and protecting investors, among others.

So, what changes once the initiative takes effect? Jeroni Khoo, deputy country manager at Luno Malaysia, a local DAX, explains that the company has long maintained an internal selection committee and established processes for listing digital tokens.

Committee members are responsible for evaluating any token the platform intends to offer to the public, typically producing a 40-page report that is then submitted to SC for the final decision.

The report includes critical information on a particular digital asset, including its tokenomics, ultimate beneficial owners and key risks.

“Essentially, it is a double-vetting process. First by Luno, then by SC. This has so far enabled the listing of 23 digital assets for Malaysians, all of which comply with the standards set out by the regulator,” says Khoo.

Investors are well protected, but the downside is also evident, according to industry players. Digital assets take a long time to be listed, with only four tokens being added to the DAXs’ offering lists last year, translating into an average of three months per approval.

The regulator’s conservative approach means that only digital assets with the largest market capitalisation and highest trading volumes are listed on local DAXs, limiting the appeal of their product offerings.

With the liberalisation process kicking in, more digital assets can be listed on the local platforms as soon as they pass the internal processes of each DAX that meet SC’s requirements. They no longer need the regulator’s concurrence for launching new products, says Khoo.

David Low, co-founder and CEO of Hata, Malaysia’s first and only dual-licensed crypto exchange, says the liberalisation of digital asset listings shows local exchanges have earned the regulator’s trust over the years and that the investing community is becoming more sophisticated. “We have sort of ‘graduated’, so we can now make our own assessments to offer new coins to the market,” he adds.

Concurring with Khoo, Low notes that not all digital assets will be eligible for listing once the liberalisation initiative takes effect. Private tokens — designed for privacy and user anonymity, such as Monero — are likely to remain unlisted as they could expose the industry to illegal activities like money laundering.

Stablecoins are also not expected to be listed, at least for now as they fall under the purview of Bank Negara Malaysia and require its approval, he says.

Chan Wei Chi, CEO of Kinetic DAX Sdn Bhd, says local DAXs are already preparing for the liberalisation initiative by actively engaging with the regulator. Investors can expect things to move fast after the new RMO Guidelines are released.

“SC told us that the exchanges can start preparing their internal framework to support the listing process. If we meet the requirements, we can go live [once the new guidelines are published],” he says.

Chan, who also serves as president of the Malaysian Digital Asset Platform Association (MDAPA), says the liberalisation initiative comes at the right time, as DAX users are becoming increasingly sophisticated and have been calling for greater product variety.

One category of digital assets that exchanges are looking to launch is meme coins — tokens inspired by internet memes, pop culture or humorous viral trends.

A classic example is Dogecoin, developed in 2013 by two software engineers as a satirical, light-hearted alternative to Bitcoin. Based on the popular Shiba Inu meme, it was designed to bring some fun to a space many felt was being taken far too seriously.

Surprisingly, Dogecoin has not only weathered more than a decade of crypto market booms and busts but is today the 10th-largest digital asset by market cap.

According to cryptocurrency data aggregator CoinGecko, Dogecoin was traded at US$0.00055 per coin in December 2013. As at Feb 2, it was priced at US$0.103489 per coin, representing an increase of 18,240% over 12 years.

At its peak in mid-2021, Dogecoin traded at nearly US$0.70 per coin before collapsing to around US$0.0055 within a year. The rally was driven by Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s repeated tweets about the coin and market speculation that he would mention it on Saturday Night Live, the American late-night variety show.

Many investors argue that Dogecoin’s price surge is driven purely by market demand and speculation, rather than underlying fundamentals. Hata’s Low agrees, saying: “There is no utility; it’s a meme. But having said that, we have to recognise that Doge has been in the space for many years. It has survived three major cycles and a lot of ups and downs in the market. A lot of us are still trading it and its market cap is in the hundreds of millions. We cannot deny there’s demand for it.”

He says local exchanges are likely to take an agnostic approach towards meme coins if they become eligible for listing after the liberalisation initiative. They could be offered as long as they are not associated with illegal activities, have no major history of pump-and-dump schemes, and all key information is clearly communicated to investors.

KDX’s Chan concurs, noting that meme coins hold little fundamental value for traditional investors and are traded purely on speculation. They may, however, appeal to younger investors who embrace the meme culture.

“There is some form of social value attached to memes and, therefore, investors want to invest in them. And, obviously, there are returns that can be made. So, we want to allow investors to participate in them, as long as they know the risks,” he says.

Chan believes many investors who buy meme coins know the risks. “They are discerning. So, a big part of our job is putting up the right data points for them to do further research before making a decision.”

Like it or not, meme coins remain a recurring trend, often experiencing surges in demand and trading volume — opportunities that DAXs do not want to miss out on.

One industry player describes the digital assets currently listed on local DAXs as “dino coins”, referring to those released long ago. “They are not very new, and investors are asking, ‘Where are the new coins?’”

Another industry player is looking at the possibility of listing nascent tokens, or newly issued coins that have gained significant traction in a short period of time and are available only to sophisticated investors.

One example is Hyperliquid’s HYPE. On Feb 2, the token surged to US$31.14 from US$6.51 on Nov 29, 2024, according to CoinGecko, after hitting an all-time high of US$58.53 on Sept 18 last year. HYPE serves as the native utility and governance token for the Hyperliquid blockchain, which he notes is now the largest decentralised derivatives exchange globally.

“When Hyperliquid launched its token, it was already very hot in the market. The ability to list digital assets like these, even if they are just for sophisticated investors, allows us not to be too slow in supporting these coins,” he says.

Exchange tokens, such as BNB issued by Binance and LEO by iFinex, a British Virgin Islands-registered company that owns and operates the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange, is another category of digital assets that the DAXs are looking forward to offering investors.

BNB and LEO are also utility tokens, offering holders various benefits such as reduced trading fees on Binance and Bitfinex.

An industry player cautions, however, that trading nascent tokens such as HYPE and exchange tokens such as BNB can be risky. HYPE lacked a proper KYC (know-your-customer) process, leaving it vulnerable to illegal activities, while BNB has been on SC’s Investor Alert List since 2020 for “carrying out unlicensed capital market activities”.

While the liberalisation initiative will give investors access to a broader range of locally offered digital assets with greater protection, industry players highlight a larger motivation behind its implementation.

Chan, Low and Khoo note the regulator’s goal of bringing back the substantial funds that Malaysians currently use to trade digital assets on overseas exchanges.

Just how much money are Malaysians deploying to trade digital assets abroad? Luno’s Khoo estimates that local DAXs account for only 40% of the total value of digital asset trading by Malaysians, while Hata’s Low believes the figure is closer to 30%.

According to SC’s public consultation paper on the Proposed Amendments to RMO Guidelines, released in June last year, local DAXs recorded a total trading value of RM13.9 billion in 2024. Based on this figure and feedback from industry players, Malaysians are estimated to have deployed RM35 billion to RM46 billion in digital asset trading via offshore exchanges, using a back-of-the-envelope calculation.

Industry players agree that Malaysia needs a stronger digital asset ecosystem, including local DAXs that are competitive in their product offerings, to attract that capital back.

Low, Chan and Khoo also note that local investors can still find ways to trade their preferred digital assets when they are unlisted or banned domestically.

Trading digital assets on overseas exchanges has also fuelled activity in US dollar stablecoins and the ringgit, facilitated by offshore exchanges’ peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplaces and the use of mule accounts. Upon receiving US dollar stablecoins, such as USD Tether (USDT), local investors can transfer them to offshore exchanges to trade digital assets unavailable locally.

Demonstrating on his phone, Low shows a list of online advertisements on the P2P marketplace of an offshore exchange, offering USDT in exchange for ringgit. The platform uses a random string of letters to mask the word “ringgit”, but an exchange rate of four-to-one indicates that these advertisements are accepting ringgit for USDT.

Clicking on an advertisement reveals further details, including a local bank account for transferring the ringgit to. These accounts could be mule or business accounts set up using dormant companies. Chan and Khoo also reference such practices, noting that they are widely known in the crypto community.

“I believe there is a bigger issue that the industry and the regulator are trying to address here. The market needs to be liberalised, or more money could flow overseas. If that money can flow back in, it can be monitored and Malaysians’ interests are better protected,” says Low.

He adds that product offerings are only part of the equation. Local DAXs must also lower trading costs to encourage Malaysians to trade more on domestic platforms.

At the time of writing, local DAXs were charging investors a trading fee of 1% to 2%, compared with the 0.1% to 0.2% charged by established exchanges overseas such as Binance. While it will be challenging for local exchanges with much lower trading volumes to match these fees, Low believes there is still room for DAXs to reduce their charges.

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