PayMaya Partnered with Coinbase to Offer Crypto in the Philippines

April 6, 2022: We updated the article to reveal who PayMaya partnered with to develop their crypto offering.

PayMaya, which has 38 million users in the Philippines, has activated buy and sell crypto in its app. Using the app, there is no need to use PayMaya as a “ramp” to buy crypto in local or international exchanges. Filipinos can buy crypto on PayMaya directly.

“We’re very excited about this – as you can probably imagine. We’re happy to share with you that PayMaya has made a big stride in going beyond payments with the availability of the Crypto feature in our app. This will enable Filipinos to easily buy and earn popular digital assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum for as low as ₱1,” says Nick Wilwayco, in a message to this reporter.

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Paymaya Partnered with Coinbase Institutional

Nick says the crypto offering of PayMaya is developed in partnership with Coinbase Institutional, the largest trusted bridge to crypto, and the most regulated crypto exchange in the world. “Coinbase Institutional provides the scale and stability needed to successfully participate in the crypto economy,” Nick added.

As both an Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) and Virtual Asset Services Provider (VASP), PayMaya noted the challenge in using multiple apps with separate registration process just to get crypto. “Unlike other e-wallets and apps, customers can learn to use crypto, cash in to their wallets, buy and sell coins, and spend their crypto earnings, all in their PayMaya account.”

How to buy crypto with PayMaya

PayMaya activated its crypto function a solid 3 months after receiving a virtual currency exchange license from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. In a December interview with BitPinas, the company says it was not planning to acquire an existing licensed exchange. It said putting crypto products in their app is part of its roadmap, and the firm is “approaching it purposively.”

“We see the rise in popularity of crypto, especially among our digital-first younger users. With the PayMaya e-wallet already a part of their everyday life for daily purchases and transactions, our customers now want to be able to buy and earn crypto smartly and seamlessly. That is why we are making it an integrated feature in our e-wallet app,” said Shailesh Baidwan, President of PayMaya.

“The challenge is how to develop the right solutions relevant to our customers. We are not putting services on the market just for the sake of claiming that we are offering them,” PayMaya’s Nick Wilwayco answered in a previous BitPinas interview.

Step-by-step buy or sell crypto directly from PayMaya

This is done by simply clicking “Crypto” in the dashboard of PayMaya app. After that you simply need to click buy (or sell) and choose the crypto you want to purchase.

1) Click “Crypto” icon on the dashboard.