The New Coins.ph CEO Says the Next Crypto Craze Is Going to Stay. Here's Why
Hype comes and goes—we all saw that with the Bitcoin craze of 2020-2021. For months, Bitcoin and crypto dominated every headline until the buzz died down and the hype faded away. But according to Coins.ph’s new CEO Wei Zhou, the latest crypto trends from the U.S. point to another round of growth for the crypto market—and this one might be here to stay.
“One of the biggest trends in the U.S. is that the godfather of the asset management industry, of all financial—which is BlackRock, the biggest asset manager in the world—is now coming out with a Bitcoin ETF. As a result, everyone that is in the traditional finance world, whether you work at a bank or manage a fund, you're all interested, because the godfather of the industry is interested,” said Wei Zhou at Coins.ph’s office opening in BGC. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission still has to get around to reviewing BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF as well as ETFs of other investment firms, but the ETF applications are very telling: Crypto gets their vote of confidence.
Also read: Gojek Sells Coins.ph to Former Binance CFO
“That trend is global, but maybe even more so in the Philippines. The interest is coming back, and it's coming back from new sources. Because of the last wave of [crypto] adoption here was primarily, I would say, young people, but I feel like this wave, you're going to have more aunties and uncles coming in.”
As the former chief financial officer of Binance and vice chairman of Grindr, the Harvard alum knows a thing or two about what he’s talking about: “Just from a global tech adoption perspective, the Philippines is actually a leading country. It trends quite like the U.S. from a user behavior perspective in terms of just anything digital.”
At the moment, the Philippine crypto market is not quite at its 2021 level during the last crypto bull run, but as is the volatile nature of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the next one is inevitable and Filipinos could be ready for it.
“The Philippines is a global leader in the adoption of digital assets, ranking 2nd in the world in the 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index by US-based firm Chainalysis. Also, in a recent report by global blockchain company Consensus, it found that 76 percent of Filipinos had at least some level of familiarity with non-fungible tokens (NFTs),” said Jen Bilango, Philippines Country Manager of Coins.ph.
‘The Future of Crypto Is Going to be Regulated’
To cater to the growing interest in digital assets, Coins.ph stays ahead of the curve by offering the best rates and tighter spreads—and playing by the rules. Crypto might be volatile, but its notoriety is largely caused by unregulated platforms and assets, which explains why the Sucurities and Exchange Commission is doubling down on unlicensed platforms. The future of crypto is going to be regulated, according to CEO Wei Zhou.
“The biggest challenge are those that don't play by the rules in our industry. We get a bad rep, not because of what we did, but because of what other players did. And we know they weren't following the rules. So we became collateral damage for something that we did not cause. I think that will continue to persist, but I'm very, very optimistic that that will be addressed by regulators,” said Bilango.
It’s a sentiment shared by Wei Zhou: “Our biggest competitors are actually unlicensed offshore exchanges.” They serve as competition in customer base, but also as opponents in economic impact. As Zhou put it, “Offshore exchanges actually take your liquidity, take your money, [then] that money essentially leaves the country. That money doesn’t really go back, doesn't get deployed back into the country (Philippines), doesn't spend through the ecosystem here, doesn't go to other financial service providers, doesn't go to other startups here. That money actually physically leaves the country,” elaborated Zhou.
That said, the same sentiments aren’t applied to local—and legal—competitors.
“It's much more important to build the ecosystem than it is to, quote unquote, squash your competitors because this market is so early. [It takes] a village to raise a child. We want the industry to grow, we should actually build the ecosystem together,” said Wei Zhou. “I actually encourage everyone in the ecosystem to basically come in, get liquidity, get bitcoin, get USDT from us—instead of getting it from offshore illegal places. I think that's really important. That way then the money and liquidity actually stays in the country.”
Keeping the liquidity in the country is at the top of Coins.ph’s list. It recently launched Coins Pro, a digital currency exchange platform where Filipinos can trade over 50 cryptocurrencies using the Philippine Peso. It also launched a Game Center within its app called Coins Arcade where Filipinos can discover and play various blockchain games and rewards that go straight to the Coins.ph Web3 Wallet.
Zhou even shared his dream of launching a NASDAQ with Coins.ph, focused solely on Philippine startups to encourage “local people to invest in local companies and local entrepreneurs and local projects.”
