Philippine banks embrace digital currency

2024 reported the coeingeek that East Asia had received over $ 400 billion In value via Stablecoins and other digital currencies between summer 2023 and 2024.

It is perhaps no surprise that Southeast Asia is holding in line, as reports show Philippines is a place where large banks are launching a multi-Isuer Stablecoin.

Peso Stablecoin, PHPX, is a project between Unionbanks UBX, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC), Cantilan Bank and The Rural Bank of Guinobatan. It will initially work on the Hedera network behind the scenes without users interacting directly with it.

The main purpose of PHPX StableCoin is to enable foreign Filipino workers to Send transfers faster and with lower fees. Currently Pinoys sending a huge $ 40 billion per year to the country; Transfers are counted for 10% of GDP.

“We want Philippines that make money in the United States (or elsewhere) to be able to pay their children’s schooling directly from the United States (and) for the payment to be affected in real time,” mentioned John Januszczak, Ubx CEO.

Electronic cash, but with stablecoins

Digital PHPX Stablecoin is one of many similar projects in works all over the world. After almost a decade, banks, companies and nation states wake up to How blockchain technology is about payments And how it can facilitate faster, cheaper payments all over the world.

While huge institutions such as Bank for international settlements (BIS) has worked with projects such as Mbridge In order to realize these benefits for central banks and financial institutions, we see increasingly retail -focused projects.

While it took a while, we are finally starting to see digital currencies serving its original purpose. There are still a few steps before everything is collected, such as the insight to use different blockchains for each coin Fragment liquidity And leads to interoperability issues, but these insights arrive on time.

At the moment it is encouraging to see banks and fintech companies use the technology to improve people’s lives. With the average Filipino that makes approximately $ 339 per month, even small reductions in transfer fees are very important. While 10,000 transactions per second Hedera may process will not reduce it in the long term, it is a much better option for PHPX StableCoin than Ethereum or Soana.

Can the development world ‘Leapfrog’ everyone else?

While many people in North America and Europe are only interested in digital currencies to shop for Fiat currency wins, projects such as PHPX Stablecoin show that blockchain and DLT can create real value in the market.

In regions such as Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America, it tends to be a much greater focus on usability and explore what technology can do to improve people’s lives. This is reflected in how Southeast Asia is also a Global StableCoin -Nav Hotspot for game-to-earn games. Using micropayras may not matter to an American or European, but for players in developing countries, they may be a further source of income and a way to play games that would otherwise be too expensive to buy or subscribe.

This embrace of digital currencies and blockchain technology for cases in reality can also be seen in the strong differences in Attitudes to the Central Bank’s digital currencies (CBDC) in different regions. People in Nigeria and Indonesia are much more open to how CBDC can benefit them, while Westerners tend to be skeptical and concerned about integrity and political freedoms.

Can this embrace of blockchain tools lead the development world to buck The developed world, which seems to be happy to rest on their warehouses? It would be a mistake to underestimate these regions full of young, hard -working people who are keen to build the future. After all, while British and Canadians still use physical debit cards and many in the older generations refuse to embrace internet bank, China has moved forward by a significant margin in many areas, especially payments.