Pinoys Want Crypto Regulation? | Weekly Crypto News Roundup July 10, 2023

Do Pinoys want crypto to be regulated? 

In today’s article, we examine recent research from ConsenSys and briefly revisit a previous study that yielded different results.

Here’s the top news:

• Half of the respondents from the ConsenSys survey in the Philippines want crypto regulations.
• Crypto community reactions mixed regarding Infrawatch’s letter to regulators to suspend Binance and Coinbase in the country.

Upcoming: BitPinas Webast About AMLA and Crypto Regulations

This Wednesday, July 12 at 8pm (UTC+8), BitPinas will be interviewing Nichel Gaba, the CEO of licensed cryptocurrency exchange PDAX. As of this writing, 382 people have responded to the webcast, where Nichel and myself will be discussing the following:

1. An overview of AML regulations in the Philippines and their impact on crypto investors and holders.
2. Why banks close accounts they suspected involved with crypto transactions.
3. New developments at PDAX
4. We will also ask him for his thoughts on some of Coins.ph CEO Wei Zhou’s response in our previous webcast. If you remember, Wei said he doesn’t think centralized exchanges work well with having an NFT marketplace, which PDAX has. Let’s see what Nichel will say about this.

I believe this interview will be worth your time. Feel free to respond “going” into this event link so you will get notified once we’re starting.

See you! 

Regulation and Policy

Pinoys Want Crypto Regulation

Half of all the respondents to the study conducted by blockchain firm ConsenSys and YouGov are in favor of “robust crypto regulations.”

The stats are:

• 51% want crypto to be “heavily” regulated to ensure “traditional financial markets are not destabilized and that investors are protected.”
• 34% believe “regulators should create regulations that encourage responsible participation in cryptocurrency.”

More on the stats later, but first, let me say that Pinoys wanting regulation is in direct contrast with the research published by WRN in October of last year. One important part of that report stated that Filipinos don’t put importance on whether or not a platform has a license from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. What’s important is that the platform is easy to use and has lots of cryptocurrencies.

This change in sentiment is important, especially with the FTX implosion last year. We assume no changes in the VASP landscape in the Philippines going forward, except if there’s an acquisition somewhere (wink wink).

Community Reacts: Infrawatch vs Binance and Coinbase

The local crypto community has expressed mixed reactions to Infrawatch’s letters to the regulators to suspend Binance and Coinbase, with some criticizing the think tank for attempting to manipulate the free market, while others emphasize the importance of technological innovation in the cryptocurrency industry.

Some of the community opinions we took note:

• Let’s get this out of the way: a ban on Binance and Coinbase will be favorable to locally licensed exchanges. Addressing local exchanges, one commenter said local exchanges should innovate to catch up with Binance. “Binance is still the gold standard for crypto exchanges,” the person said.
• Another said this will be an interesting development, at the time when Binance is pressed or investigated by regulators around the world, yes, not just in the U.S.

You can read more in our article: Community Reacts: Infrawatch vs Binance and Coinbase

More policy news

• PAGCOR (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation), which is responsible in overseeing the casino landscape in the country, said the hit online casino game PhilWin is not accredited and authorized to operate.
• Felipe Medalla has turned over BSP leadership to Eli Remolona, the new central bank governor.

Industry Developments

Crypto ownership in the Philippines drops to 19%

Half of the Filipino population has owned cryptocurrency at some point, but only 19% currently possess any, according to the study by ConsenSys.

Among those surveyed, 28% had previously purchased crypto but no longer own any, while 19% still hold cryptocurrency, reflecting a total of 47% with past experience in crypto ownership.

Bitcoin is the most commonly owned cryptocurrency among Filipinos, with 71% of respondents saying they own it, followed by Ethereum, BNB, and Dogecoin.

ConsenSys Research also said only 25% of Pinoys understand what Web3 is. (Do check out our article where we sourced comments from a popular community manager and the co-founder of Web3 Philippines group.)

 NOTE: 51% might give the impression of representing 51 million Filipinos, really. But the survey methodology reveals the following scope: 

• 1022 interviews
• 32 open ended questions
• People between 18 and 65 years old residing in the Philippines
• Date is from April 26, 2023 to May 10, 2023

Crypto thought leader Luis Buenaventura brought up a good point. “Saying ‘almost half of the PH population’ actually mean ‘almost half’ of the 18-65 population that they surveyed, that has Internet access, and that is literate in English.”

With this in mind, Luis is saying the estimate is more or less 15 million Filipinos who have owned crypto at some point.

Coins.ph has 16 million users, but how many of them are actively holding crypto is not something we know. Coins is my usual benchmark for all “crypto ownership” research.

More News: Crypto and Blockchain

• A deep dive into the crucial skills needed for Filipinos to enter the crypto and web3.
• Philippine Blockchain Week happens this September. It has also received support from the DICT (Department of Information and Communications Technology) and DTI (Department of Information and Communications Technology).
• Securities and Exchange Commission warns the public against 8 entities without licenses.
• Coins removes trading fees for USDC and USDT to PHP pairs.

More News: Web3 and NFTs

• Anito Legends kicks off burning event.
• Crypto Art PH to showcase blockchain-integrated murals in upcoming major art exhibition in Manila.
• Filipino-led XOVOX Labs has been recognized by decentralized platform The Sandbox to become its partner in the Philippines.

This week in Fintech

• CIMB Bank “Thank You Blowout Promo” offers 12%(!!) interest rate.
• LGBTQIA+ and domestic partners are now part of GCash Employee Benefits.
• Central bank bans six entities registered as Money Service Businesses.
• Fintech Alliance and Gorriceta Law gear up for upcoming INDX Summit.
• Digital Pilipinas is Promotions Partner of PH Economic Zone Authority.

This week in AI

• Bing Chat in Windows 11 Sidebar?
• Are more people looking for AI jobs than crypto jobs?
• What are the best ChatGPT plugins for content creators?
• Must follow AI influencers and thought leaders
• What are the top industries that will be disrupted by AI?
• A deep dive on how to become a prompt engineer.

Feature: Interview with My Pet Hooligan

I had the chance to interview Sheraz Ashiq, the web3 director of My Pet Hooligan. We focused more on the business side of the game as well as his journey to web3. It was a refreshing change of pace in my end because I’ve been covering crypto regulations a lot as of late. 

I also found out that the interview was a hit among the My Pet Hooligan community. I didn’t know there was demand for these types of deep dive and perhaps I should do this more often.

Check out the article here: From Lehman Brothers to Web3: My Pet Hooligan Director on Killer Content and Community Building

Upcoming events and activities:

• Coinfest Asia in Bali will have the theme “web 2.5” and set to bring over 100 speakers to the event.
• Coins.ph X Pegaxy “Ask Me Anything” session this July 14.
• Business and web3 networking event in Albay.
• YGG Web3 Community Summit this Saturday.

And again, do not forget our live webinar this Wednesday!

For more on the latest news on cryptocurrency in the Philippines, always check out BitPinas: 

• Check out our website at https://bitpinas.com.
• We are also on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.
• Check out our Telegram community for quick news and updates.

This article, ‘Pinoys Want Crypto Regulation? | Weekly Crypto News Roundup July 10, 2023’, is published on BitPinas.

Disclaimer: BitPinas articles and its external content are not financial advice. The team serves to deliver independent, unbiased news to provide information for Philippine-crypto and beyond.