On 14 October, on the main stage at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, e23 was named Token-X Champion of the Selangor Triple Accelerator Programme 2026.
The title was awarded at the programme's Grand Final Demo Day, organised by the Selangor Information Technology and Digital Economy Corporation (SIDEC) during the AI & Semiconductor Summit (AiSEM@Selangor). We had seven minutes to pitch and seven minutes to answer questions from a panel of judges drawn from venture capital, banking and industry.
Fourteen minutes is a short time to explain a sovereign blockchain designed for a world with quantum computers. We used it to make one case. Malaysian banks and custodians will need financial infrastructure they can govern at home, and that infrastructure has to be secured against cryptographic threats before those threats arrive. The judges chose us as champion of the track.
How We Got Here
e23 is part of the Token-X track under the Selangor Triple Accelerator Programme 2026. Ninety startups pitched at the Showcase Days in August, and the top eight from each track went through to the Grand Final. We were one of the eight in Token-X.
The 12 weeks in between were some of the most useful we have spent as a company. We worked alongside super mentors and refined how we explain our work to people who do not spend their days thinking about cryptography.
That last part mattered. Our Founder and CEO, Wui Yang, told Media Selangor after the final that the hardest part of the competition was persuading the judges, because the technology we work with is still relatively new in Malaysia. e23 only began operations in 2025. Winning Token-X tells us the argument lands, even with a demanding panel.
The award was presented by YB Ng Sze Han, Selangor State Executive Councillor for Investment, Trade and Mobility and Chairman of SIDEC. As Token-X Champion, we received:
- RM20,000
- A trophy and a certificate
- A place on SIDEC World Stage Venture, SIDEC's overseas exposure programme
Congratulations as well to Coded Solution, Teel and Green Energy Network, who were named Token-X top winners alongside us.
What We Pitched: MerdekaL1
MerdekaL1 is the sovereign Layer-1 blockchain we are building in Malaysia for institutional and regulated environments. It sits at the centre of our work, alongside our stablecoin payment and tokenisation infrastructure.
Here is the problem we set out to solve. Most digital assets and financial records today are protected by public-key cryptography that a sufficiently capable quantum computer could one day break. A bank or custodian holding assets for decades carries that risk now, because data captured today can be decrypted later.
So we built MerdekaL1 to pair classical and post-quantum cryptography from the start. Network connections already use TLS 1.3 with a hybrid X25519 and ML-KEM-768 key exchange. ML-KEM is the key-encapsulation mechanism NIST standardised in FIPS 203. Certificate authentication currently uses ECDSA. Because the design is crypto-agile, we can upgrade algorithms as standards move without rebuilding the network.
A few other choices reflect who we are building for:
- Permissioned governance. Only authorised participants verify transactions, which suits the oversight that banks, custodians and regulators expect.
- No speculative token. Network fees are a configurable governance parameter.
- Familiar tooling. Developers get Ethereum-compatible smart contracts and tools, on a network written in Rust with two transaction rails sharing one ledger.
We want to be clear about where we are. Phase 1 is complete: all 11 planned modules have been built, tested and documented, and a pre-pilot developer network is running. Identity, compliance and further institutional features come next. MerdekaL1 is not in production, and it will need further testing and validation before any regulated deployment.
Next Stop: Hong Kong
The championship comes with a trip. Through SIDEC World Stage Venture, the eight Token-X and Deep-X winners will join Hong Kong FinTech Week x StartmeupHK 2026 from 2 to 6 November.
We are going to listen as much as to present. Putting MerdekaL1 in front of international investors and infrastructure operators will sharpen our roadmap, and we hope to come home with conversations that lead to partnerships outside Malaysia.
What This Win Means to Us
An award does not build a blockchain. Engineering hours do, and this result belongs to the e23 team who put them in over the past 12 weeks and well before that.
What the title gives us is a stronger hand in our next conversations. We want to keep moving MerdekaL1 beyond Phase 1, and we want to sit down with Malaysian banks, custodians and public-sector bodies that need digital financial infrastructure they can run and govern domestically. If that describes your organisation, we would like to hear from you.
Thank You
Our thanks go first to SIDEC and its Chief Executive Officer, Yong Kai Ping, for running a programme that pushed every founder in it. We are also grateful to YB Ng Sze Han for presenting the awards and for Selangor's continued backing of homegrown companies.
We are also grateful to AFFIN, Cradle, MRANTI and Fiuu, and to the judges and mentors who gave their time to this cohort. To every founder in the 2026 cohort: it was a privilege to share the stage.
See MerdekaL1 for Yourself
You can explore MerdekaL1's pre-pilot network on the MerdekaL1 Explorer. To talk to us about collaboration, visit e23.io.
e23 in the News
- Bernama: SIDEC names e23, Enygma and Recharge champions of the Selangor Triple Accelerator Programme 2026
- Digital News Asia: 12 startups win the Selangor Triple Accelerator Programme 2026
- Malaysiakini: SIDEC announces the Selangor Triple Accelerator Programme 2026 winners
- Media Selangor via Newswav: e23 founder EE Wui Yang on winning Token-X
