Crypto exchange Coins.ph unveils actress Yassi Pressman as its new brand ambassador. The crypto app hopes to double or triple its current 18 million users by the end of the year. Jekki Pascual, ABS-CBN News 

MANILA - Cryptocurrency exchange platform Coins.ph is eyeing to at least double its current number of users as it pushes virtual currencies to become more mainstream. 

The platform currently has 18 million customers, but the company says 40 million by yearend is not impossible. 

Coins.ph Country Manager Jen Bilango said majority or around 95 percent of the 18 million users it has now are Philippine-based, but she said numbers will grow exponentially in the second half of this year as they expand overseas. 

“Hopefully we grow that double, triple from what we are right now. Not just coming from the Philippines. We are expanding in other countries. Coins is now available in international exchange in Mauritius. We are also available in Latin America, Europe, and Australia,” she said. 

But as the platform expands abroad, Coins.ph is also eyeing to widen its reach in the Philippines. 

It unveiled actress Yassi Pressman as its brand ambassador to hopefully capture a bigger market in the country. Pressman shared that she has been investing in crypto for about 7 years now and she even experienced several ups and downs in the crypto market, but asserted that it was all part of the investing journey. 

“I just put my money there 2017, 2018 and I kind of let it grow. It dropped during the bear market which is kinda sad, very very sad. Pero kapit lang. Stay strong lang tayo. So now we’re back on our feet,” Pressman said.

Bilango agreed that there are indeed risks to investing in crypto, which is why she said it is better to invest in companies like Coins.ph which is regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. The company is the first crypto-based platform in Asia to have both Virtual Currency and Electronic Money Issuer licenses from a central bank. 

“In stock market, we also have risks associated to it whenever you buy stocks. Any financial transaction in nature or asset in nature, will have its own risks. What you want to remove as user is basically platform risk,” she asserted. 

Bilango also said investing in crypto will also help in nation building and boost the overall economy as it will expand investment options for Filipinos and it will also cut costs for sending remittances to the country. 

“You’re not just engaging with traders in the Philippines, but you’re engaging on a global market. And that puts you in a better situation because wealth formation, capital formation, wealth accumulation can be born out since you’re dabbling with a bigger sandbox so to speak,” she said. 

Coins.ph has recently launched the pioneering Philippine Peso stablecoin or PHPC, which can lessen costs and time for sending money to the country. A stablecoin is a digital representation of a currency and its value is tied to that currency and this is usually more stable than the volatile cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. 

“The transfer of ownership and settlement is instant because you only handle it in one ledger as we say. That removes a lot of complexities… If you open the Philippines up to a retail stablecoin, you unlock ways in which people can send money back home,” Bilango said. 

Coins.ph now offers over 100 tokens and more are added monthly. It plans to go to the grassroots level in the Philippines to help Filipinos learn more about crypto, to avoid scams, and hopefully for Filipinos to also invest in BSP-regulated platform.