Personal remittances – the sum of net compensation of employees, personal transfers and capital transfers between households – accounted for 8.9% of the Philippines’ GDP. Data released by the central bank showed personal remittances increased by 3.6% to a record high US$36.1 billion in 2022 from the previous high of $34.9 billion in 2021. Meanwhile, like Vietnam, the Philippines has a huge remittances market. However, according to Finder’s Cryptocurrency Adoption Index, the crypto ownership rate in the Philippines is 15%, with almost 11 million Filipinos owning digital assets. For instance, a recent study by CoinJournal, the Philippines ranked globally by number of virtual asset traders – about 7 million or 6% of the population of 113 million. It attempts to link the main banks of the country to rural banks and bring financial access to previously unbanked parts of the country.Įstimates of crypto ownership in the country vary widely. ![]() ![]() For instance, UnionBank has also launched a payments-focused stablecoin pegged to the Philippine peso for financial inclusion purposes. Crypto can probably help support these goals. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) aims for 50% of retail payments to be digital by the end of 2024 as well as for 70% of adults to be financially included. The Philippines is the most pro-crypto country in Southeast Asia, buoyed by regulatory tolerance linked to the central bank’s digitization and financial inclusion goals. The country shared the top spots with Brazil among the 20 countries surveyed by Gemini. Transaction volume of crypto assets in the country rose more than 1,000% in 2021 to 859.4 trillion rupiah ($57.37 billion), according to Bappebti's data.Ī widely cited survey published by Gemini in April 2022, the "Global State of Crypto Report," found that 41% of Indonesians aged between 18 and 75 years old with an income of more than $14,000 per year own crypto assets. In the most recent crypto bull market, Indonesian investors were very active. ![]() According The Paypers, as of early 2023, there were 383 crypto assets and 10 local coins that can be traded in Indonesia, while an additional 151 assets and 10 coins under review by Bappebti. Indonesian regulators believe virtual assets should be regulated on an equal basis with other financial and investment instruments. That said, Indonesia plans to set up a cryptocurrency exchange this year ahead of a shift of regulatory powers over digital assets to the Financial Services Authority from the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency, known as Bappebti. During the last crypto bull market in 2021, the Indonesian central bank even mobilized official supervisors to enforce the ban on financial institutions using crypto assets as a means of payment. Bank Indonesia banned payment processors from using cryptocurrency to settle transactions in 2016 and in late 2017 prohibited financial institutions from using crypto for payments. Crypto in Indonesiaįor its part, Indonesia has generally been supportive of crypto as an investment class, but not for payments. “We're thrilled to play a role in building a more inclusive experience and shaping the future of payments,” Abhay Agarwal, Founder and CEO of Getbit, said in the press release. In 2021, the country received more than $18 billion in remittances. Vietnam is among the top ten largest receiving remittance markets from the U.S. dollars received as local currency in a recipient's bank account in Vietnam. ![]() In a press release, Strike said it would “enable lightning-fast transfers” from U.S. to Vietnam in partnership with the crypto exchange Getbit. With that in mind, Strike, a digital payments platform built on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, in late March announced the launch of money transfers from the U.S. While traditional remittance methods have high transaction fees, using crypto can be significantly cheaper. For instance, the 600,000 Vietnamese working overseas in more than 40 countries annually remit an estimated US$3-3.5 billion every year, according to Vietnamese government data. One likely reason for crypto’s popularity in Vietnam is that it has important practical uses.
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