A trillion dollars moved through Southeast Asian phones, and credit cards barely featured
The numbers settling in from the region tell a story most residents already live: Thailand and its neighbors have built a digital payment network worth $1.41 trillion in total transactions during 2025, and the infrastructure now processes more money each year than many national economies produce. By 2030, forecasters expect that figure to reach $2.4 trillion to $2.6 trillion.
For someone living in Thailand, the shift is visible at every street stall and market. The credit card swipe — a fixture in Western economies — never became the default here. Instead, a population of 680 million people across Southeast Asia moved directly to phone-based payments, bypassing the plastic card era entirely.
Thailand's national system leads the region
The Thailand Revenue Department and the Bank of Thailand have overseen the development of PromptPay, a government-built instant payment infrastructure that now carries 74 million transactions per day on average. As of September 2025, the system processed 4.2 trillion baht in monthly transaction value.
The numbers for 2026 show no slowdown. In July 2026, PromptPay handled 2.51 billion transactions, a 13% increase from the same month the previous year, with a total value of 4.39 trillion baht. By August 2026, the daily rhythm had reached 2.53 billion transactions for the month.
Registered users stand at over 90 million, meaning most Thai residents have linked their bank accounts to the system. The digital economy of Thailand is now projected to reach a Digital GDP of 5.6 trillion baht in 2026, growing at twice the rate of the broader economy.
Cross-border payments reshape travel and remittances
The cross-border QR payment system, which allows Thai merchants to accept payments from foreign e-wallets and vice versa, recorded 1.76 billion baht in inbound transactions in July 2026 alone. Chinese visitors accounted for the largest share at 1.13 billion baht, followed by travelers from Malaysia and Laos.
A milestone came with the linkage between Thailand's PromptPay and Singapore's PayNow — described by digital finance experts as the world's first real-time, cross-border retail payment connection. The tie-up allows residents of either country to transfer funds using only a mobile number, cutting fees and delays.
Thailand-based Kasikornbank has also partnered with StraitsX in Singapore to develop blockchain-based payment solutions, enabling users to scan and pay via Grab QR while abroad. Thailand-based TrueMoney, operated by Ascend Money, allows Thai users to pay at merchants in Singapore through the Alipay+ network without exchanging physical currency.
The wallets that carry regional commerce
Several Thailand-based and regional technology companies now dominate mobile payments:
• TrueMoney (Thailand-based Ascend Money): Holds approximately 16.8% market share for e-wallets in Thailand and operates across six countries including Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia, serving over 21 million users.
• GrabPay (Southeast Asia): Leads the e-wallet market in Malaysia with 38.3% share and Singapore with 35.3% share. Its total payment volume reached $5.8 billion in Q2 2025, a 38% year-on-year increase. Grab reported 102 million monthly users across Southeast Asia as of September 2026.
• GoPay (Indonesia): Processes over 500 million transactions per month as of September 2025, with user numbers rising 46% year-on-year to reach 49 million in September 2026. Approximately 58% of Indonesians use GoPay regularly.
• GCash (Philippines): Commands the Philippine market with 94 million users and approximately $9.3 billion in monthly circulation.
• MoMo (Vietnam): Leads Vietnam's e-wallet sector with over 40 million users, growing 18% in 2024.
• ShopeePay (Sea Limited): Operates across Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Shopee recorded 398 million monthly active users across Southeast Asia as of September 2026.
Why cards lost ground
Digital finance experts in Thailand and Singapore note that mobile-first payments gained traction because they solved real problems: accessibility without a credit history, instant transfers without branch visits, and lower transaction costs for small merchants.
PromptPay's account-to-account transfers now account for 44% of e-commerce transaction value and 43% of point-of-sale payments in Thailand — the highest proportion in Southeast Asia. The system succeeded because it allowed anyone with a bank account to pay directly, without navigating credit card applications or carrying cash.
Singapore, despite high credit card penetration, has seen rapid adoption of digital wallets such as DBS PayLah! and GrabPay, particularly among millennials and Gen Z users. Singapore's digital payment transaction value is projected to reach $113.65 billion by 2030, growing at 16.3% annually.
What happens next
Two developments will shape the next phase:
The ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA), expected to be signed in 2026, could expand the region's digital economy to $2 trillion by 2030 if negotiations succeed.
Project Nexus, scheduled to begin operation in 2026, aims to create a multi-party architecture for real-time cross-border payments, linking national systems including Thailand's PromptPay, Singapore's PayNow, Malaysia's DuitNow, Indonesia's QRIS, and Vietnam's VietQR.
By 2029, analysts project that 97% of e-commerce transactions in Southeast Asia will use digital payments, effectively ending cash-on-delivery as a mainstream option.
For residents, the change is straightforward: lower fees for cross-border transfers, fewer trips to ATMs, and more merchants accepting QR codes. The region's digital payment market, valued at $3.8 trillion in 2024, is projected to reach $14.9 trillion by 2032 — a scale that makes smartphones the primary bank branch for most of the population.
