REGIONAL DIGITAL FINANCIAL ASSETS AND THEIR POTENTIAL IN FINANCING INVESTMENT PROJECTS IN ASEAN

The goal of the research is to assess the potential of the digital financial assets (DFA) as the instruments of financing the investment projects in the ASEAN countries. The paper studies the nature and outlines the key technologies used in the DFA. The current state of the development of the regulation of the DFA in ASEAN is described. The authors highlight the different stages of the regulation development in different ASEAN member-states, from initial drafts of the regulation (e. g. Vietnam) up to the recognition of the DFA as assets and currency (Thailand and Singapore). Close attention is paid to the assessment of ASEAN DFA market. The research outlines the high rates of market growth since 2018–2019, and number of market player is estimated as more than 70 million. The key focus of the research is to outline the potential of the usage of the DFA as regional investment tools, based on the ASEAN funds. Authors conclude that ASEAN regional DFA have great potential, and could be applied to the different ASEAN financial and equity funds, however the key track of the regional cooperation on the current stage is to develop common regulation framework and infrastructure.