On Nov 27, OxPay Financial announced the receipt of in-principle approval (IPA) for a Financial Services Licence from the Gelephu Financial Services Office (GFSO) to provide regulated money services in or from Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC), Bhutan, through a new wholly-owned subsidiary to be established in GMC.
Subject to the fulfilment of the remaining regulatory pre-conditions to the GFSO’s satisfaction within three months and the grant of the Licence, OxPay’s GMC-based subsidiary aims to introduce a suite of digital payment services tailored for businesses seeking to offer diverse payment options. The core offerings include 1) merchant payment services that enable businesses to accept payments in the form of credit card, e-wallets, and crypto currencies from a global customer base without ever being exposed to price volatility, and 2) business remittance services which cater to business-to-business (B2B) payment cases by utilising stablecoin as the conduit of transfer for a more cost effective and faster cross-border transfer.
The GMC-based subsidiary will operate on a fully non-custodial business model, acting solely as the initiator of crypto conversion and transfer while all cryptocurrency transactions are executed by its blockchain partners on a transaction-by-transaction basis. To ensure a secure and compliant digital payments ecosystem, OxPay will partner with a top-tier enterprise blockchain provider for core crypto services, integrate leading blockchain intelligence and compliance tools, as well as deploy cloud-based backend systems for operational resilience.
This asset-light model will enable the group to capitalise on its strong merchant acquisition capabilities to expand its footprint within Bhutan and provide a scalable foundation for future expansion into surrounding Asian countries.
Global crypto growth in 2025 was led by South Asia, with Bhutan’s neighbouring countries India and Pakistan recording an 80% surge in adoption between January and July 2025 as compared to the same period a year earlier, and generating around US$300 billion in transaction volume.
Chin Mun Chung, Executive Director and CEO of OxPay, said, “We will be working expeditiously to set up the new subsidiary in GMC, Bhutan to empower merchants for card, e-wallet and cryptocurrency payment acceptance. Meanwhile, we are looking to expand into the B2B payouts using blockchain technology to deliver a more cost-effective and efficient solution for Bhutan businesses. We look forward to working closely with the authorities and our business partners to deliver trusted digital payment and remittance solutions to businesses in GMC and ultimately explore opportunities to scale in the South Asia region and thereafter internationally, amid the crypto-driven transformation of the digital payments industry.”
