Philippines: Crypto Slowly Becoming More Accessible Than Stocks

Coins.ph announced its partnership with Globe Telecoms on providing alternative reward incentives for Globe’s customers in the form of crypto of their choice. Now this piece of news happened a few months ago but somehow there’s not much buzz about it contrary to how I expected the news would fly post announcement. I was expecting a co-worker who frequently uses GCash app from Globe would ask about it.

If anyone else noticed a pattern on my posts, I’d often reference my co-workers being the closest thing I could gauge on public crypto perception. If an average person gets interested in stocks and crypto, then something is about to happen. And yet no spike in inquiries about how to hop into the trend happened.

It could just be the effects of the global bear market, inflation screwing our daily lives, or other mainstream media agenda preoccupied with something else because what’s more important than prying on a celebrity’s personal life? It’s not really a problem considering crypto adaption is still at its infancy stage within the country despite more Filipinos own crypto compared to investing in stocks.

1.6 million Filipinos investing in the Philippine stocks vs 7 million Filipinos estimated to be invested in cryptocurrency. This may mean I have a good chance meeting someone already interested in crypto than stocks over a cup of coffee.

The fact that Globe partnered with Coins.ph to provide those alternative rewards to its customer base signals it's serious about incorporating crypto into its future offers. It’s just my speculation but if Globe, the one that produced a successful mobile app for virtual money transfer decides to host its own cryptocurrency exchange services, then there’s nothing else stopping other companies to get into this venture.

Globe Telecom is one of the leading telecommunications company within the country that has entrenched its brand through decades of service. It’s always one of the staple brands that comes into mind when thinking about what network one subscribes for their phone or their preferred internet service provider. Their GCash app paved way to making investing opportunities accessible using an e-wallet. It’s no wonder this company is considered one of the blue chip stocks to choose from.

There are prerequisites before crypto can become mainstream here and one of those is having cryptorelated services get more partnership with established names and it needs to have a structured method of being taxed. Right now, users would have to be mindful about their crypto transactions because the tax scheme doesn’t specifically address gains from crypto.

Taxes will be a hot debate later on given how even an elementary school kid could potentially start earning some Hive just from their blogs without a Tax ID. I’m not even sure if the tax guidelines we got going now for our regular gross income will still apply to our crypto gains as stated from this article.

Globe already had its stock price soar during the height of pandemic due to the rise in use of GCash. Now if cryptocurrencies became part of its services in the future, there’s no doubt they’d be one of the leading providers people would trust in the future.

One advantage crypto has over traditional stocks is how less complicated it is to get started. With traditional stocks and banking, people can get intimidated with the financial terms that are inherently boring for most people. Play2Earn games promise fun on top of earning and people are more receptive to this form of marketing than get told "you put your money on some fund and wait for it to grow on its own but there are risks involved". And it's through the introduction of P2E games that get people more curious about other games and blockchains in the process.

Do your own research~

If you made it this far reading, thank you for your time.

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