Singapore Gulf Bank Introduces In-Bank Settlement for USDC via Solana

Singapore Gulf Bank (SGB) has rolled out a stablecoin mint and redeem facility. Corporate and high-net-worth clients can now convert directly between fiat and stablecoins within their existing SGB accounts. The in-bank settlement service, initially announced in February, currently supports USDC on the Solana blockchain. Transactions must exceed $100,000 to qualify. This is a deliberate constraint, likely aimed at managing risk and demand among institutional-grade users. SGB gained entry to the Circle Alliance Program prior to this launch. The program serves as Circle's global partner network centred on USDC adoption and integration. I expect this partnership provided the technical and compliance scaffolding needed to offer minting and redemption directly inside a licensed bank. The bank has stated it plans to add support for other stablecoins across multiple blockchains. No specific timeline or chain selections have been confirmed yet. Worth watching how SGB handles the operational side—custody, transaction finality, and regulatory reporting—once volume increases. For now, the move represents a straightforward bridge between traditional banking rails and on-chain settlement.