Philippine On The Way To Stablecoin Adoption To Make Payments More Efficient
- Philippine central bank Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Director Mhel Plabasan stated that stablecoins will help make payment system and related processes easier than they currenty are.
- Philippines is ranked second in the list of the countries with the highest rate of crypto adoption while Vietnam was in the first place as per a Chainalysis report.
- The central bank has granted licenses to six digital banks and is looking at finance to further drive digital payments.
Philippine central bank Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Director Mhel Plabasan has put his faith in stablecoins and stated that these blockchain based tokens will help make payment system and related processes easier than they currenty are. According to a report, Plabasan stated that in a country in which citizens are heavily reliant on remittances from other nations, stablecoins backed by the US dollar play an important role.
The director of technology risk and innovation supervision department at BSP was present at Forkast’s “Crypto Rising: CBDCs & Stablecoins: The Asia Perspective” live stream which was hosted by the Crypto Council for Innovation.
“We have seen it really has the potential to revolutionize both domestic and cross-border payment more affordable, faster, and even the possibility of using stablecoins to make cross-border remittance efficient,”
Plabasan said.
Interestingly, Philippines has recently completed a test run for stablecoins being used to receive payments in the country and it seems that the run has been quite successful. Moreover, according to a recent report from blockchain analystics firm Chainalysis, Philippines is ranked second in the list of the countries with the highest rate of crypto adoption while Vietnam was in the first place.
Plabasan pointed out that gradually the Filipinos are starting to adopt cryptocurrencies but it is crucial for the government to team up with the private sector in order to break the regulatory complexities and implement more progressive regulations for stablecoins as well as cryptocurrencies in Philippines.
“We’ve been collaborating with the private sector because at the end of the day if we talk about new technology, we cannot actually regulate what we don’t understand,” he said. “That’s why it’s important for us to constantly engage the private sector [and] we learn together. We are part of the journey to get to improving digital payments using stablecoins,”
Plabasan said.
Plabasan also confirmed that the central bank is working on a central bank digital currency or CBDC project which has been titled “Project CBDCPh” and it seems that the country is on the road to crypto adoption as the global demand for blockchain technology is gradually increasing.
The director also pointed out that until now, the central bank has granted licenses to six digital banks and is looking at finance to further drive digital payments. He further confirmed that “there are a lot of initiatives right now to digitize payment in the Philippines, not necessarily related to the CBDC.”
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
