Blockchain Wealthtech

PayMaya Enables In-App Crypto Investments From as Low as PHP 1

Philippines digital wallet PayMaya has now enabled Filipinos to easily buy and earn cryptos such as Bitcoin and Ethereum from PHP 1 for an all-in-one app experience.

Licensed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), PayMaya is both an Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) and Virtual Asset Services Provider (VASP), the latter since January this year.

With this new feature, customers can learn to use crypto, cash in to their wallets, buy and sell coins, and spend their crypto earnings, all in their PayMaya account.

Meanwhile, upgraded PayMaya users can trade in a variety of the most popular coins directly from their wallet in Philippine Pesos.

PayMaya said that it is currently rolling out the feature progressively to its base.

Aside from Bitcoin and Ethereum, other popular coins and tokens available for trading in the PayMaya app are Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK), Uniswap (UNI), Solana (SOL), Quant (QNT), Polkadot (DOT), Polygon (MATIC), and Tether (USDT), with more coming soon.

PayMaya developed this offering under its “Invest” feature with Coinbase Institutional, one of the largest publicly traded crypto company in the world.

Coinbase Institutional offers a comprehensive suite of products and services including custody, prime brokerage, trading tools, and analytics, and an enterprise infrastructure built on top of a robust security platform.

PayMaya’s crypto expansion is not its first foray into this space as the company has allowed other crypto platforms and apps to accept top-ups from Philippine-based wallets and cards since 2020.

As of December 2021, PayMaya provides more than 44 million Filipinos access to financial services through its consumer platforms.

Most recently, its affiliate Maya Bank secured the sixth license from BSP to operate a digital bank which will be headed by seasoned banker Angelo Madrid.

Shailesh Baidwan

“We are very excited to launch this feature, a big step up in making crypto accessible to every Filipino through their PayMaya app. Being at the forefront of digital payments and financial services, expanding into crypto is part of our roadmap as we build the Philippines’ most accessible end-to-end money platform.

We see the rise in popularity of crypto, especially among our digital-first younger users. With the PayMaya e-wallet already a part of their everyday life for daily purchases and transactions, our customers now want to be able to buy and earn crypto smartly and seamlessly. That is why we are making it an integrated feature in our e-wallet app,”

said Shailesh Baidwan, President of PayMaya.