Ex-Binance, Ex-Coins.ph Crypto Head Colin Goltra Joins Yield Guild Games as COO
Goltra revealed that it was Gabby Dizon, co-founder of Yield Guild Games, who offered the role to him and he knew he would be “mad at himself” if he were to pass it up.
By Shiela Bertillo
Colin Goltra, Director of Growth for Southeast Asia and Country Director for the Philippines of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, announced last Friday, December 17, that he will be leaving the exchange and joining gaming guild Yield Guild Games as Chief Operating Officer. The move, Goltra said, enables him to become “fully crypto-native.”
Goltra priorly shared the news of leaving the exchange last month via Twitter and in his blog “Speculations.”
“I’ve grown a tremendous amount with Binance over the last 2 years and will reflect upon the time very fondly. (I’m) still a huge believer in their vision + mission and will continue cheering them on from a distance,” he wrote announcing his last day working for Binance.
The former country director admitted that his decision to leave Binance was “abrupt and a bit of a surprise,” but he expressed that he is “incredibly grateful to the team at Binance for the very productive 2-ish years” he spent there.
“Though I left seemingly prematurely, these crazy Crypto Summer numbers we put up in the Philippines, then Southeast Asia, then APAC are highlights that will likely stick with me for the rest of my career. Candidly, the structure and opportunity to lead at Binance gave me a lot of new skills and confidence that I feel I really only pretended to have when I left Coins.ph. I am definitely way better-off for the experience,” he added.
Goltra revealed that it was Gabby Dizon, co-founder of Yield Guild Games, who offered the role to him and he knew he would be “mad at himself” if he were to pass it up.
“I think YGG stands alone in the uniqueness of its mission. Much has been said about the incredible impact that Play-to-Earn gaming has had in the Philippines and broadly across emerging markets – and I think the social impact part of this story has still barely played out globally. It’s a nascent force that is going to have profound impacts on the shape of society in the 2020s,” he stated.
Goltra also noted in January through a tweet how YGG is “essentially re-inventing one of the Philippines’ largest domestic industries (manpower/staffing services) for the new Metaverse frontier.”
“This is a unique moment in business and technology, not just for the Philippines but for the global crypto ecosystem, and I’m super excited to drive it with the YGG team,” he stressed.
Finally, Goltra explained that his move is not “leaving Binance and joining YGG” but more like “leaving Binance and becoming fully Crypto-Native.”
“As crazy as it might seem, when you work at Binance, Coins.ph, or other crypto services – you’re really still playing very close to the shore of the vast crypto ocean. Your job still resembles a Web 2.0 role to a large extent – you have a database of users, you compete against other companies with databases of users, and you gear your operation around competition in a way that is a lot less prevalent in positive-sum Web3,” he said. Goltra was the previous Head of Cryptocurrency at mobile wallet Coins.ph.
He emphasized that working in YGG would give him more freedom to venture in the space without the restriction like what a huge cryptocurrency exchange such as Binance has.
“Thus, going forward, I plan to be more open about my activities as an angel investor / advisor in the space – and to (hopefully) ramp up my activities in both domains in a meaningful way,” Goltra revealed.
This article is published on BitPinas: Ex-Binance, Ex-Coins.ph Crypto Head Colin Goltra Joins Yield Guild Games as COO
Featured image: Max Quest
