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25 October 2026 · Naimint team · 3 min read

Singapore's BLOOM and Project Guardian, explained

Singapore's central bank is building shared approaches for settling in tokenised bank liabilities and regulated stablecoins. Here's what BLOOM is, how it relates to Project Guardian and Project Orchid, and why it matters for banks considering tokenised deposits.

BLOOM is an initiative from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), launched on 16 October 2025, to "enable settlement in tokenised bank liabilities and well-regulated stablecoins" through standardised approaches that manage the risks involved. The name stands for Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency. It builds on Project Orchid and complements Project Guardian, MAS's long-running work with industry on asset tokenisation.

For banks, the significance is simple: a major financial regulator is working on common rails for settling in tokenised bank money, which is what a tokenised deposit is.

What is BLOOM trying to do?

According to the MAS media release, BLOOM aims to extend the settlement capabilities that financial institutions offer. It covers:

  • Currencies: G10 and Asian currencies.
  • Payments: domestic and cross-border payments and settlement.
  • Wholesale uses: such as corporate treasury management, trade finance and agentic payments (transactions initiated and executed by AI agents on behalf of an organisation).

What are BLOOM's focus areas?

MAS set out three initial areas of work, each with named industry members:

  1. Distribution and clearing of settlement assets: coordinating separate networks so settlement assets can be used, transferred and redeemed seamlessly. Members named include Circle, DBS, OCBC, Partior, Stripe and UOB.
  2. Programmable compliance controls: standardised compliance checks, using the Programmable Compliance Toolkit from MAS's Global Layer One initiative. Members named include Ant International and StraitsX.
  3. Agentic payments: AI agents that carry out transactions within pre-defined limits and conditions. Members named include Coinbase and DBS.

The full list of members is in the release's annex.

How does BLOOM relate to Project Orchid and Project Guardian?

  • Project Orchid began in 2021 and explored uses for a digital Singapore dollar and the infrastructure behind it. MAS says BLOOM "builds upon the groundwork established through Project Orchid."
  • Project Guardian is MAS's collaboration with industry on asset tokenisation. MAS says BLOOM "complements ongoing MAS-industry collaboration on asset tokenisation under Project Guardian." MAS's annual report on digital assets and asset tokenisation sets out the wider programme.
  • BLOOM also complements MAS's Global Layer One work on foundational infrastructure.

Why does this matter for banks?

Tokenised deposits are only useful if they can be settled: between a bank's own clients first, and then with other institutions and against tokenised assets. Regulator-led work like BLOOM points towards shared standards for that settlement, including programmable compliance, rather than every bank inventing its own.

Three practical points follow for a bank planning tokenised deposits:

  • Keep the deposit on your own books. BLOOM is about settling in tokenised bank liabilities. A tokenised deposit stays a liability of the issuing bank, backed by a balance on its core ledger.
  • Build compliance in before signing. Programmable compliance is one of BLOOM's focus areas. Eligibility, limits and screening should run before any transaction is built or signed.
  • Plan for more than one network. Coordinating "separate networks" is BLOOM's first focus area. A bank's token model should not be tied to one network, and moving between networks should not mean bridging.

Naimint is software for licensed banks that follows these principles: the core ledger leads, the bank's own HSM signs, compliance runs before signing, and network adapters connect one token model to more than one network. Naimint is not a member of BLOOM, and network names describe compatibility only. Read what a tokenised deposit is.

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