Philippine cryptocurrency exchange Coins.ph and Australia’s Stables Money have partnered to use Coins.ph’s Philippine peso-pegged PHPC stablecoin for remittances. The Philippine peso already makes up over a quarter of Stables Money’s send transactions.
Stables Money entered the Philippine market in March. The Philippines is the largest importer of remittances in Southeast Asia. Remittances to the country reached $34.9 billion in 2020, according to the World Bank.
Gaming stablecoin moves into remittances
PHPC was admitted to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ regulatory sandbox in May and launched in July. It is backed by reserves held by Coins.ph. Stables Money CEO Bernardo Bilotta said:
“Recognizing the Philippines as a key player in global remittances, we expanded to deliver smooth PHP transactions. With 28.44% of our send transactions now in PHP, this move highlights our commitment to […] those sending money to the Philippines.”
Stables Money has collaborated with Mastercard in the Asia-Pacific region since March 2023 to allow users of its card to spend USD Coin (USDC) wherever Mastercard is accepted. The partners expanded their activities to Europe in July.
Related: USDC issuer partners with Philippines exchange to promote stablecoin
Since its exit from the sandbox, PHPC has launched on the games-oriented Ronin network. It is traded on the Ronin-based Katana decentralized exchange, where it saw $3,430 in trading in the last 24 hours at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko.
PHPC is the latest in a string of launch attempts
Given the size of the Philippine remittance market, it is unsurprising that there have been multiple attempts to launch a peso-pegged stablecoin. PHPC is experiencing notable success against that backdrop.
Source: Coins.ph
The Philippines’ UnionBank launched a similar stablecoin in 2019. That stablecoin failed to find footing and is no longer issued. UnionBank subsidiary UnionDigital Bank attempted to launch a Philippine peso stablecoin in 2022 but was apparently unsuccessful again.
UnionBank subsidiary UBX made another attempt to launch a peso-pegged stablecoin in March, launching the coin on the Polygon network. The current status of that project is unknown.
The Philippines’ Smart Citi Teknologi announced a partnership with Hong Kong-based Xtreme Business Enterprises and Coinllectibles to launch a peso-pegged stablecoin in May 2023, according to local news reports. The current status of that project is unknown.
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