Morph survey finds 83% of APAC businesses face two-day payment delays

Cross-border business payments across the Asia-Pacific region continue to suffer from multi-day settlement cycles, according to research by blockchain infrastructure firm Morph ^[1]. In a survey of 150 independent operators, freelancers, and commercial decision-makers spanning five regional markets, 83% reported that foreign invoice receipts take at least two business days to land in local bank accounts ^[1].

Despite the friction in conventional settlement channels, uptake of digital dollar alternatives remains narrow. Just 10% of survey participants currently use stablecoins for cross-border transactions ^[1]. That muted adoption reflects broader institutional hesitation regarding oversight: 96% of respondents indicated that formal regulatory compliance would exert a very high impact on establishing trust in tokenized assets ^[1].

Addressing the operational bottleneck, Renna Ba, director of partnerships at Morph, noted that commercial users prioritize reliable settlement over novel technology ^[1]. "What stands out is not an appetite for a new asset," Ba said, adding that businesses primarily prioritize reliable settlement times ^[1]. For fintech infrastructure providers targeting the regional settlement stack, bridging compliance frameworks appears essential to moving corporate treasury teams past legacy clearing rails ^[1].