Philippines Central Bank Gives Green Signal to Two Companies to operate Cryptocurrency Exchanges

The central bank of Philippines, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has approved two firms to operate virtual currency exchanges (VCEs) in the nation, local news outlet PhilStar Global mentioned.

The two companies that have received the go signal from BSP are Atomtrans Tech Corp. International and Telcoin Corp –a Tokyo based company.

Atomtrans Tech Corp. was established in 2017, is a financial service provider company, headquartered in the Philippines. The company already runs ATC Payment and ATC Remittance solutions, and currently it is expanding its operations into the crypto industry through its new crypto exchange ‘ATC Digital Currency Exchange.’ Atomtrans Company represents ‘the Philippine-China remittance’ services and has inked a deal with ‘China UnionPay Electronic Payment Co. and Philippines Union Bank.

Telcoin Corporation, on the other side, is a leading mobile service provider company, headquartered in Japan. The company has developed an Ethereum blockchain technology with a powerful mobile market in the country.

Earlier, the Philippines central bank provided the license to 11 virtual cryptocurrency exchanges to operate in the country namely, Betur Inc., Rebittance Inc., dba Coins. Ph, Virtual Currency Philippines Inc., Bloomsolutions Inc., Ethranss Remittance International Corp., Zybi Tech Inc., Fyntegrate Inc., Coinville Phils Inc., Bexpress Inc., Bitan Moneytech Co. Ltd, Aba Global Philippines Inc., and Rebittance Inc. Now it has approved another two VCEs; thus, the license to VCEs has grown to 13.

Small crypto market but expanding

The Philippines crypto market is relatively small in comparison to other leading market such as Japan, the US, and South Korea. The digital currency market is expanding significantly, and in the previous year, cryptocurrency transactions reached $390 million, and in 2017, the cryptocurrency transaction was at $189.18, data as per Philippines central bank.

Meanwhile, Philippine is planning to take the necessary measures to control the growing cryptocurrency industry effectively. Recently, the government-supported agency offered guidelines to control ICOs (initial coin offerings) in the nation.

Founder of Satoshi Citadel Industries (SCI) mentioned that the Philippine is the first country in the world, where the Philippines central bank approves companies seeking to offer cryptocurrency services.

Co-founder of Rebittance Inc, Miguel Cuneta informed a source that apart from these 13 licensed VCEs, numerous digital currency exchanges are in the process of registering. The country has been one of the most cryptocurrency friendliest nations throughout the world.

Cuneta assumes that the digital currency adoption is expanding in the country,

Another, founder of Bloomsolutions Inc., Luis Buenaventura says that around 2 million people in the Philippines have been adopting cryptocurrency and there lies a

Other Crypto Development in the Country

One of the leading banks in the country has recently installed two Bitcoin-based ATMs under the regulatory sandbox of the government.

On the other hand, Coinbase- US-based cryptocurrency exchange expanded its business services in the Philippines, in 2019.

In recent time, the Philippines Union Bank launched its own digital currency dubbed ‘PHX’ in order to connect Philippines rural banks via its blockchain-based platform. PHX is pegged to official currency of Philippine, Philippine peso PHP.  The digital currency is already deployed on the Banks Island-to-island (i2i) blockchain-based platform.