Colin Goltra | Binance | 2020 Year in Review
Colin: I am just more excited about the home grown PH crypto scene really coming into its own this cycle and having a much more collaborative tone than in prior bull market years. It’s a great community and I think it can do a great job spreading the word about crypto throughout the Philippines.
January 15, 2021 — Every person you ask will say the same thing: 2020 is unlike any other year.
The cryptocurrency industry felt the full brunt of the pandemic, as evidenced by the March 2020 crash. Nine months, one Bitcoin halving and a couple of institutions later, the industry sees a resurgence in interest brought about by Bitcoin hitting and breaking the psychological all-time high at $20,000 and reaching a new one of $42,000.
What is the 2020 Year in Review?
BitPinas sought the opinion of key crypto and blockchain leaders/influencers in the Philippines and abroad on what they think about 2020 in general and what they look forward to in 2021. Today, we feature Colin Goltra from Binance sharing his thoughts about cryptocurrency in the Philippines, crypto art, and leading and expanding the #CryptoPH ecosystem.
What does your organization do and what is your role in it?
Colin Goltra: As Director of Growth for Southeast Asia and Country Director for the Philippines, I am tasked with expanding Binance’s presence in Southeast Asian markets, including/especially the Philippines. Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and CZ has given us the mandate that in order to expand into the mass market we must have strong local executives and teams in our key markets. I’m focused on building great teams and proliferating our products and services throughout the region.
Outside of my day job, I’m also very involved in the broader #CryptoPH ecosystem movement and an avid collector of Crypto Art.
Please share a personal highlight for you and/or your organization this year in the crypto and blockchain space.
Professionally in 2020, the big one for me was that I joined the team at Binance and have really focused on building out an excellent team. We are already starting to see some great wins throughout the region, including the success of our Binance P2P marketplace in the Philippines.
As a business, 2020 has been a huge year for Binance. Due to market conditions, continued product innovation, and aggressive expansion into local markets, CZ seems to announce new records in volume, activity, and other all-time highs on a daily basis on Twitter now. Binance is really surfing well in the high tide right now.
In addition to the professional highlights, the other big ones for me were helping to expand the #CryptoPH community via Telegram and Discord communities and establishing a name for myself as a Crypto Art collector via platforms like SuperRare. I wrote a blog post in the crypto art community (“Unholy Unions“) that seemed to really resonate well with both the artist and collector community, and have continued to contribute my thoughts into that fast growing space.
What do you think is the most important blockchain/crypto development in the Philippines and globally in 2020?
The big one I was a part of was the proliferation of Binance P2P as a top PHP crypto market, really competing well locally on price and ultimately allowing Filipinos to have better access to Binance’s global services.
In the local ecosystem (#CryptoPH), it was definitely the rise of crypto-based play-to-earn gaming here in the Philippines, with significant growth and coverage of Filipinos playing games like Axie Infinity. I think this is a true crypto-native use case and the Philippines is really at the forefront of a major crypto movement here, unlike with a lot of other prior crypto movements.
Globally, a lot has been said about DeFi, I think that has definitely been a huge story for 2020, but it’s also already been talked about at length.
How did the pandemic change how your organization operates? Or how you’ve changed your approach?
I joined Binance during the pandemic and I think they were very well adapted to the changes. There’s a natural decentralized and remote-first ethos to the company and most people were already working from home to begin with. I haven’t met most of my new teammates in person yet, which can sometimes make it hard to gel as a group, but overall I think we’ve taken it in stride as well as we could have.
What is your fearless 2021 crypto prediction or forecast?
Overall, I’m fully aware that predictions are inherently fragile, but I do think there are common patterns that happen the year-or-so after the halvening and we are already seeing them play out big time. We are well past the prior all-time high in BTC and it seems that ETH also has the momentum to pass its all-time high. These big price movements will attract a broader interest base and likely lead to a continued frenzy in the market for some time.
Globally, some things I think we will see in 2021 as a result of this:
- Continued price mania for a bunch of different coins
- Continued exploration and investment by institutions into mainstream crypto assets
- Continued exploration into other asset classes like NFTs, gaming items, and crypto art/collectibles
- I think we will see multiple works of crypto art go for more than $1million USD
Locally, I think we will see:
- Expansion of new crypto services in the Philippines by mainstream players like Binance and Coins.ph
- The Philippines, via communities like #CryptoPH, will contribute leadership in the global crypto ecosystem in a way that it hasn’t previously. Due to wages in markets like the Philippines, we will be right at the forefront of “use case” verticals like gaming and art where extra crypto earnings go much further – and there will be individuals and companies from the Philippines that that are globally recognized as leaders in these spaces
- I think we will see a lot of new PH crypto startups and projects that work more closely at the protocol level (as opposed to new exchanges and wallets) and break onto the scene as major players -> we already have The Yield Guild, and will hopefully see many others
- I think we will see new individual Filipinos become leaders in our community and help us spread crypto to more varied and targeted Filipino audiences -> like Kookoo, Spock, and others
What do you personally look forward to in this space?
At Binance, I think there’s a lot more we would like to do to expand our presence in the Philippines and I hope to achieve many of those roadmap goals in the coming year.
Overall, I think I am just more excited about the home grown PH crypto scene really coming into its own this cycle and having a much more collaborative tone than in prior bull market years. It’s a great community and I think it can do a great job spreading the word about crypto throughout the Philippines.
Follow Colin on Twitter. Check out Binance P2P and #CryptoPH Telegram channel.
This article is published on BitPinas: Colin Goltra | Binance | 2020 Year in Review
