Singapore’s ChiChaPay Debuts Digital Crypto Wallet

Singapore’s ChiChaPay launched Tuesday (Jan. 3) a digital wallet that processes both fiat and cryptocurrencies.

“ChiChaPay will offer a host of financial options for users including staking, reward points, and investing solutions based on blockchain technology,” the company said in a news release. “It is a Web3 wallet, allows access to Web3, and processes payments in digital currencies, or crypto.”

According to the ChiChaPay website, the company’s gateway can accept cryptocurrency payments from “all major wallets” through API integration.

The announcement came, as PYMNTS reported Tuesday, on the 14th anniversary of the bitcoin network. That network — among other things — promised to “replace fiat, revolutionize commerce on the internet, and render redundant those financial institutions (FIs) serving as trusted third-party intermediaries by establishing cryptographic proof as the foundation of payment.”

Fiat currency is still very much around, PYMNTS noted, driving internet commerce, while the role of financial institutions and central authorities with regard to payments has only grown in importance as industries undergo digital transformations and consumers increasingly use digital wallets to purchase goods and services.

Recent research by PYMNTS finds that digital wallets are growing in popularity. Our data showed 59% of consumers who tried a new payment method in the past year chose to embrace digital wallets.

Meanwhile, 42% of American consumers interviewed showed curiosity about the payment method but have not yet tried it, showing “a greenfield opportunity that lies ahead,” as PYMNTS wrote recently.

Digging a bit deeper, we also found that 66% of Gen Z consumers and 67% of millennials used digital wallets in the past year.

It is the digital wallet, PYMNTS noted, that houses a range of cards and spending options in a single place “and which harnesses data in real-time that in turn can be funneled across platforms, on offer from FinTechs and traditional financial institutions (FIs).”

The financial wellness offerings connected to a “digital front door” of a super app/platform are especially of interest to younger consumers, with 48% of Gen Z individuals and 33% of millennials showing enthusiasm for a super app.

This trend isn’t just confined to the U.S.

PYMNTS research found that consumers in Japan increased their use of digital wallets by 20% in the third quarter of last year to make in-store purchases, more than any country surveyed.

During that quarter, consumers in seven of the 11 countries PYMNTS studies upped their adoption of digital wallets for in-store payments. Overall, consumers used digital wallets for 4% more transactions than in the second quarter.

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