PHPC Passes BSP's Regulatory Sandbox, Targeting 16 Million Overseas Filipinos in the $40 Billion Remittance Market.
Coins.ph, one of the largest crypto platforms in the Philippines, has just announced that the PHPC stablecoin has officially passed the testing phase in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas' regulatory sandbox. The project joined the sandbox in April 2024, and after completing a rigorous monitoring process, PHPC became the first officially licensed stablecoin in the Philippines, pegged to the peso and aimed at improving digital financial service efficiency domestically.
The launch of PHPC occurs in a context where the Philippines has particularly favorable market conditions for stablecoins. Only 56% of the population had bank accounts as of 2021, while the BSP has licensed 12,797 pawnshops representing 77.8% of the entire system to provide money transfer services. Notably, with 16 million Filipinos living abroad, the country is the fourth largest remittance recipient globally, with $40 billion sent back in the past year according to the World Bank.
Coins.ph CEO Wei Zhou stated that the company can now fully exploit PHPC's potential, especially in areas where Filipinos need it most: remittances and cross-border payments. In a context of fragmented banking networks with high costs and slow processing times, stablecoins become an optimal solution where relatives abroad can send USD stablecoins directly to Coins.ph wallets, then quickly convert them to PHPC to eliminate many intermediary steps.
Strict and Transparent Management Framework
PHPC's backing assets are held in local banks in the form of cash or cash-equivalent assets. Coins.ph is bound by periodic independent audits of reserves, smart contracts, and security infrastructure, and must report regularly to the BSP. Once sandbox restrictions are lifted, Coins.ph can issue additional PHPC to serve growing demand and support larger value transactions.
PHPC is not the only stablecoin in the Philippines. Earlier this year, a stablecoin project collaborating between local banks emerged under the name PHPX, developed by Rizal Commercial Banking, Cantilan Bank, Rural Bank of Guinobatan, and UBX from UnionBank of the Philippines, with Just Finance as the coordinating entity.
