Ex-Coins.ph Crypto Head is Now Director of Growth for Binance Philippines and Southeast Asia
October 15, 2020 – Colin Goltra (second from left), the previous Head of Cryptocurrency at mobile wallet Coins.ph is now Country Director in the Philippines and Director of Growth and Marketing in Southeast Asia for crypto exchange Binance.
Mr. Goltra shared the news on Twitter, where he said he will be focusing on market growth in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. On LinkedIn, he shared his key role as “expanding markets, access, and infrastructure for Crypto in the Philippines & Southeast Asia with Binance.”
“The work we did at Coins.ph and with the early Bitcoin/Blockchain community were really critical first steps to expanding the market for cryptocurrencies in the Philippines, but a lot of the work remains unfinished. Given Binance’s scale and ability to innovate, I think we are in a really great position to continue the work and proliferate crypto throughout Southeast Asia,” Mr. Goltra said in a statement to BitPinas.
In his previous stint at Coins.ph, Mr. Goltra oversaw the apps growth to 5 million customers and as the head of the app’s cryptocurrency group, he was in charge of bringing more crypto available for purchase in Coins.ph – Ethereum, XRP, and Bitcoin Cash.
Some personal news: after leaving CoinsPH more than 18+ months ago, I'm excited to announce that I've joined the team @Binance and will continue to be focused on market growth in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. Excited to continue the march forward!#Binance #BNB #CryptoPH
— Goltra (@Goltra) October 15, 2020
Recently, Binance had a big marketing and charity push in the Philippines. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown restrictions, Binance Charity partnered with blockchain company SCI Ventures to donate Php 3.5 million worth of medical supplies to hospitals in the Philippines, paid with cryptocurrency. In the spirit of blockchain’s transparency, each item was audited and every transaction trail, from the donation down to the hospital that received the supplies, were recorded.
Binance has also acquired Philippines-based Swipe, a cryptocurrency wallet app and debit card that automatically converts store cryptocurrency into fiat. Due to local regulations, Swipe’s product is mostly available in Europe. The acquisition is important, according to various publications like Cointelegraph, who believed Swipe was onboarded because they have the tech to help Binance to enter the cryptocurrency debit card space.
Binance has also recently launched P2P trading in the Philippines, where buyers and sellers can directly deal with each other using Binance’s P2P marketplace. Binance Filipino users could start buying BTC or USD using PHP with zero transaction fees. Binance acts as the escrow service to safeguard both the buyer and seller in every transaction. Timing the launch on June 12, the country’s independence day, Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao said, “The Philippines is one of the most active crypto communities in Asia, and by adding support for PHP, we want to offer a flexible and free platform for the Philippine community to access cryptocurrencies.”
This article is published on BitPinas: Coins.ph Ex-Crypto Head is Now Director of Growth for Binance Southeast Asia
