PDAX Raises New Funding, Plans to Support Local Play-to-Earn, NFTs Scene

The Philippine Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX) has raised $12.5 million in funding, which will be used to improve its product and services and the Bonds.ph platform. In a press conference, PDAX CEO Nichel Gaba also said the exchange is committed to supporting the growing NFT and Play-to-earn space in the country. 

Nichel also reiterated the Philippines’ status as one of the most active countries in the crypto scene. “The Philippines has emerged as one of the top countries in the world in terms of crypto usage, falling behind only Nigeria and Vietnam,” Gaba said. “We believe that PDAX will be an indispensable part of furthering crypto adoption in the Philippines and helping Filipinos benefit from the future of finance.”

PDAX Raised $12.5 Million Investment

A UK-based venture capital firm led the funding, together with the BC Group, which is a Hong Kong-licensed digital asset operator. “As a licensed operator, PDAX is unique in the market and will continue to grow its leadership position and market share as end-users continue to migrate to trusted, regulated players,” the BC Group said in a statement.

Nichel also announced that several of PDAX’s existing investors participated in the round as well, thereby increasing their investment to the company. Some of them are Beenext Ventures, CMT Digital, Ripple Labs, and prominent family offices in the Philippines. UBX, the fintech and venture arm of UnionBank, participated as well. Asked what PDAX will do with the funds, Nichel said it will be used to fuel the company’s short and long-term growth plans as it continues to expand and improve its product and service offerings, support current operations, and improve the Bonds.ph platform, which the CEO said is the first instance of issuance of bonds in a blockchain platform.

Growth 

Since launching in 2018, Nichel said it already has seen 25x growth to half a million users, as well as 80x rise in monthly volume, which he attributes to the rising crypto adoption in the country. PDAX most recently launched new trading modes in its mobile app and the platform has new tradeable tokens — Aave, Uni, Enjin, Compound, Basic Attention Token, Chainlink, and GRT. Nichel confirms adding more tokens in the platform in the future. (Read More: PDAX Announces New Tokens: UNI, ENJ, GRT, LINK, COMP, BAT, and AAVE)

New CryptoPH Landscape

Nichel acknowledged the increasing popularity of decentralized finance (DeFi). “Innovation in blockchain is actually infrastructure innovation,” he said, adding these applications will find meaningful cases for years to come. “We’ll see traditional finance institutions adopt learnings from DeFi to mainstream applications,” he said. New tokens added by PDAX like Uni, Enjin, and Compound are primarily used in decentralized finance.

With that, he also believes most interventions from the regulators will be forward looking and will take into account security and investor protection. “We see crypto businesses either approach regulators or run away from [them]. PDAX is with the former. I believe more regulations will come and I believe most of these will benefit the space and make the market more efficient.” (Read More: How To Use PDAX: Local Crypto Trading Platform (Tagalog Guide))

Play-to-earn and NFTs

Nichel also acknowledged the growing play-to-earn and non-fungible token (NFT) scene in the Philippines, seeing them as important blockchain trends. For NFTs, Nichel said while they have no specific plans for it yet, it’s something they are looking at. “It goes to show how blockchain has far reaching applications,” he added.

“PDAX being an exchange sees itself supporting the play-to-earn space by providing more efficient conversions to PHP.”

In its weekly Friday webinar, PDAX announced an Axie Infinity scholarship program in partnership with Axies Alert PH, one of the biggest Axie groups in the Philippines.  

This article is published on BitPinas: PDAX Raises New Funding, Plans to Support Local Play-to-Earn, NFTs Scene