ShardLab CEO Says Southeast Asia Is Emerging as a Key AI, Digital-Asset Market, With Innovation Starting in Bangkok [SEABW 2026]
Summary
- ShardLab CEO Kim Ho-jin said Southeast Asia is well positioned to emerge as a key market in the era of AI and digital assets.
- He said Southeast Asia's digital economy has surpassed $300 billion and grown by more than 700%% over the past decade, while the region is shifting from a consumer market to one that builds ecosystems.
- He said experiments involving stablecoins, real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and digital-asset-based payment systems are expanding in earnest in Thailand and elsewhere, with Bangkok positioned as a place where such innovation could materialize first.
Forecast Trend Report by Period
Kim Ho-jin, chief executive officer of ShardLab, said Southeast Asia is well positioned to emerge as a key market in the era of artificial intelligence and digital assets.
Speaking in a keynote address at Southeast Asia Blockchain Week 2026, or SEABW 2026, at Bangkok's ICONSIAM on May 20, Kim said the next major chapter of Web3 could begin in Southeast Asia. Growth is accelerating not only in user numbers, but also in actual transactions and digital economic activity, he said.
Kim cited the region's population of about 700 million and the rapid expansion of its digital economy as core strengths. He said the fast spread of mobile payments and digital finance is linking Web3 services more closely to everyday economic activity.
Southeast Asia's digital economy has already exceeded $300 billion and expanded by more than 700% over the past decade, Kim said. He added that the region is no longer just a consumer market, but is becoming one that builds products and ecosystems.
Kim identified stablecoins, localized wallets, real-world asset tokenization, and AI and digital identity infrastructure as the areas where the convergence of AI and digital assets could take shape fastest. In Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, stablecoin frameworks and digital-finance experiments are already expanding in earnest, he said.
The Bank of Thailand and other major regulators are broadening experiments in programmable finance and stablecoins, according to Kim. Large banks and financial companies are also speeding up the adoption of digital-asset-based payment systems.
He also said Southeast Asia's QR-based payment culture could help drive wider Web3 adoption. Because mobile and QR payments are more deeply embedded in daily life than credit cards, digital-asset-based payment systems could connect naturally with existing consumer behavior, he said.
National QR payment networks such as Thailand's PromptPay are already part of everyday life, Kim said. Bangkok, where global tourism, finance and tech talent converge, could be one of the first places where AI- and digital-asset-based innovation becomes reality, he added.
YM Lee
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