Avalanche's Asia Head: Hong Kong Approval & Enterprise Adoption

Exclusive Avalanche Head of Asia Talks Hong Kong Approval and Enterprise Adoption

Justin Kim, Head of Asia at Avalanche, recently sat down with BeInCrypto ahead of his appearance at the Hong Kong Consensus 2025. In this interview, Kim discusses Avalanche's unique architecture enabling purpose-built blockchains and shares insights into various enterprise implementations across Asia.

Avalanche has achieved numerous successful implementations across Asia. What’s the secret behind this success?
The key is our unique architecture that enables purpose-built blockchains. Unlike traditional blockchains like Bitcoin or Ethereum, which operate on a single shared network, Avalanche allows companies to create their own dedicated chains. This solves two major challenges: scalability and regulatory compliance. Companies can control who validates their network and where data is stored, making it particularly attractive to enterprises concerned about privacy and regulatory requirements. We have a pipeline of over 100 blockchain projects, and while the technical setup takes just 5-10 minutes, we spend 6 months to a year consulting with each client to optimize their blockchain.

The Alipay-Grab partnership in Singapore appears to be a significant milestone. Could you explain this project and what challenges Avalanche helped overcome?
Since November 2023, Alipay and Grab have been using their dedicated Avalanche blockchain for cross-border payments in Singapore. For example, Korean visitors can use KakaoPay at Grab-affiliated stores, with transactions processed through stablecoins instead of traditional banking channels. The key challenge was data privacy regulations, which we solved by allowing them to create a Singapore-only validated blockchain. This MAS-approved system eliminates banking intermediaries and their fees.

Both Alipay and Grab have a presence in multiple countries, yet they chose Singapore for this implementation. Why Singapore, and are there other significant financial projects there?
Singapore, particularly the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), actively supports blockchain innovation. Besides approving the Alipay-Grab payment system, they’ve endorsed several major projects. JP Morgan is using their dedicated Avalanche chain to tokenize non-listed assets like VC shares and real estate, while Citibank implemented a blockchain-based FX trading system to improve transparency and reduce broker dependency. Singapore is positioning itself as Asia’s premier financial hub alongside Hong Kong, and their regulatory openness makes it an ideal testbed for blockchain innovation.