Coins.ph Mid-Year Review 2023: Highlights and Outlook

• Coins.ph, the first licensed crypto exchange in the Philippines, successfully launched an affiliate program, revamped its app, and implemented new trading features in the first half of 2023, along with forging multiple strategic partnerships.
• Challenges included tech migration issues, public skepticism towards crypto due to bank collapses, and problems caused by unregulated crypto entities.
• For the second half of 2023, Coins.ph plans to expand its gaming partnerships, increase token listings, explore more yield opportunities, and incorporate emerging technologies like Bitcoin Ordinals and the Lightning Network.

As 2023 reaches its midpoint, we pause to reflect on the eventful developments within #CryptoPH. The industry, rebounding stronger from 2022 and witnessing a fading bear market, has had a dynamic first half.

Today, we bring you an exclusive mid-year review from the first licensed crypto exchange in the Philippines – Coins.ph. Through Jen Bilango, the Country Manager for the Philippines at Coins.ph, the company shared some insightful details about their significant wins, challenges, and future plans. At the end of the article, please read our insights about the company as well.

Coins.ph Mid-Year Review: Key Wins in 2023

What key partnerships, product launches, or strategic decisions would you consider as your organization’s significant wins in the first half of 2023? 

Jen: Referral and Affiliate Program – these programs aim to grow the Crypto community in the Philippines and allow community leaders / businesses to monetize their reach. 

App Revamp – Giving the Coins App an all-new look, the app revamp brought in exciting changes such as an easier to navigate Home Screen that share updated crypto prices upon opening, quicker access to our Crypto Conversion & Fund Transfer services, a Crypto Portfolio section to keep track of your total balance movement and the Discover section to see our plethora of other services such as Coins Arcade, remittances and more. 

Coins Pro Implementation to App – Users can now trade via Coins Pro through the app. With this seamless integration, users now have a wide range of trading features such as market, limit and stop-limit orders and access to lower trading fees on mobile. 

Partnerships 

a. Investagram – The partnership will allow both parties to create and share educational content on financial literacy and cryptocurrencies, as well as equip even more Filipinos to trade through Coins.ph, a BSP-licensed platform. 

b. SingSing – A brand new Coins Arcade game where users can sing and earn that seamlessly integrates your Coins Wallet 

c. UnionBank – UnionBank has partnered with Web 3.0 and digital asset services provider Coins.ph for a joint initiative that will help make crypto and other emerging asset classes more accessible to the open market. 

d. Ownly – Coins.ph sparks a partnership with Ownly, a Bicol-based metaverse-focused platform, to broaden its reach in the Bicol Region

e. KooKoo CryptoTV Node Validator – A first for Coins.ph, this partnership provided users access to buy and sell $RON. The Coins team also helped set up a community driven validator by supporting Kookoo Crypto. Through this partnership, Kookoo will start to roll out content that would educate them on how to delegate their $RON tokens to earn rewards while participating in the validation process of the blockchain.

Other Wins 

a. Mauritius VASP licenses – Coins was awarded multiple VASP licenses by the Financial Services Commission of Mauritius which opens the opportunity for Coins to expand globally. 

b. Hiring of Jen Bilango as Country Manager – Jen is a seasoned executive for Web 3.0 companies in the Philippines. Through her, Coins.ph has been able to grow its relationship between key stakeholders in the industry, and close strategic partnerships.

Addressing Challenges: Coins.ph’s Adaptive Strategies

What were the primary challenges your organization faced during the first half of 2023, and how did you address them?

a. New tech stack – Coins.ph recently migrated to a new tech stack that would be able to support more chains in the future. However, during the migration phase, there were challenges that affected users which we needed to address while completing the migration. 

b. Silvergate & Silicon Valley Bank – With the collapse of key banks in the crypto industry early this year, the public’s skepticism towards cryptocurrency has grown. 

c. Unregulated entities – The unregulated crypto entities that enter the region makes it challenging for Coins.ph to drive a positive narrative for crypto with scams and other issues arising from these unregulated exchanges.

Improvements and Metrics: Comparing 2023 with Previous Years

Is there a specific metric that has significantly improved in the first half of 2023 compared to the previous year?

a. Increase of Social Media Followers – Coins.ph has grown its community across social media channels (Twitter, IG, FB, Linkedin) and can also be attributed to our recently established presence in Discord and Telegram. 

b. More GameFi Users – Coins recently listed $MV and onboarded SingSing, a Web3 sing-to-earn game on Coins Arcade, we’ve been able to grow GameFi users on our app. This is just the start as we still plan to bring more Web3 games to Coins Arcade this year so more Filipinos can entertain themselves while earning. 

c. Over 40 Tokens listed and still growing – As Coins moves to a new tech stack, its ability to list new and trending tokens has been made quicker.

Future Trends and Technologies: Coins.ph’s Future Outlook

Which emerging trends or technologies in the crypto space are you most excited about or planning to incorporate into your future strategies and why?

a. Bitcoin Ordinals – This gives satoshis individual identities and allows them to be tracked, transferred and imbued with meaning. Ideally, this will help more transactions for BTC as it expands the function of BTCs outside financial transactions. 

b. Validator Nodes – Just like the recently launched RON validator node with KooKooCryptoTV recently, we’re excited to see how this new technology can help grow and strengthen the crypto community in the country. 

c. Questing system – As Web3 gaming grows, another exciting step for them is the Questing system which allows players to earn tokens by completing a quest from a variety of games, whether new or old to them. As players progress through their quests, more exciting rewards await them. 

d. Lightning Network – This technology is something to look forward to in the future as this will definitely drive crypto adoption. As it aims to facilitate

micropayments, improve transaction throughput, and reduce transaction costs, more Filipinos would be able to use crypto day-to-day much easier.

Goals and Plans for the Second Half of 2023

What are your company’s primary goals and plans for the second half of 2023?

a. Grow our partners for Coins Arcade – Coins plans to deliver on growing Coins Arcade and onboard more exciting, fun and easy to play Web3 games on the platform. 

b. Continue adding token listings on our exchange, Coins Pro. – With the new stack, Coins is definitely going to onboard more tokens that people are asking for at a much quicker rate. 

c. Explore more Yield Earning Opportunities (Web3 Native) – Coins hopes to provide more options for yield earning to users through staking, 

play-to-earn games, content creation and other crypto uses.

For Further Reading

Coins Blog – https://coins.ph/blog/ 

Coins Academy – https://coins.ph/academy/

BitPinas Insight on Coins.ph

This portion is written by Michael Mislos

Coins.ph is the company that BitPinas has covered more than any other firms in #CryptoPH. Which means we are able to immediately confirm the statements above provided to us. 

In one of our newsletters, we mentioned that Coins.ph appears to be looking to increase its addressable market size by expanding outside the Philippines. It is still clear, however, that there are users here to service. 

We are highlighting Coins’ plans for affiliate marketing and its increasing support for web3 games, as shown by their excitement about questing systems – a key learning on how web3 communities employ such systems for engagement. The web3 game demographic could prove beneficial for Coins. This audience is always seeking ways to cash out – a service provided by Coins – as well as opportunities to use their earnings to cover online transactions, such as bill payments, which is another service that Coins provides. If this audience uses Coins for online transactions, they would no longer need to cash out, alleviating a significant issue associated with play-to-earn earnings.

Nonetheless, issues remain, as outlined by Coins above. The concerns of users remain which we think still relate to the tech stack issues. The present challenge lies in user perception.

As Coins seeks to reinvent itself and become more engaging with its “coinmunity” – a move not taken before – resolving tech issues would ensure a better experience for all involved. Otherwise, Coins would merely onboard more users who may find their experience unsatisfactory and, consequently, depart again.

This article is published on BitPinas: Coins.ph Mid-Year Review 2023

Disclaimer: BitPinas articles and its external content are not financial advice. The team serves to deliver independent, unbiased news to provide information for Philippine-crypto and beyond.