Philippines cryptocurrency exchange Coins.ph has introduced its Philippine Peso (PHP) stablecoin, PHPC, on Ronin, a major gaming blockchain by daily active users.
This development follows approval from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), which allows Coins.ph to pilot a Philippine Peso-backed stablecoin under the BSP’s Regulatory Sandbox Framework.
According to Coins.ph, PHPC is a stablecoin pegged to the Philippine Peso and is fully backed by cash and cash equivalents in Philippine bank accounts.
This peg ensures that users can redeem their PHPC 1:1 for Philippine Peso. The aim is to enhance efficiency and reduce transaction costs, including remittances, peer-to-peer transfers, merchant payments, and B2B transactions.
Wei Zhou, CEO of Coins.ph, stated,
“With the Philippines being the epicentre of web3 gaming adoption, it was important for us to make PHPC available on Ronin, the largest web3 gaming chain in the world.
Many Filipinos and Coins.ph customers use Ronin and there are a number of areas Ronin and Coins are looking to collaborate on when it comes to using PHPC for transfers, payments, trading and more.”
Ronin, an EVM blockchain designed by Sky Mavis for developers building games with player-owned economies, hosts popular Web 3.0 games like Axie Infinity and Pixels, which attract millions of Filipino gamers.
With deposits and withdrawals for PHPC now open on both Coins.ph and the Ronin Wallet, the team is planning a future listing of PHPC/RON on Katana, a decentralised exchange on the Ronin blockchain.
Jeff Zirlin, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Sky Mavis, remarked,
“We are thrilled that Coins.ph has decided to launch PHPC on Ronin. With this move, Ronin is ascending beyond its original mandate as a gaming chain and entering the realm of real-world payments and merchant transactions.”
The collaboration between Coins.ph and Ronin will eventually aim to provide Filipinos with a seamless crypto experience for everyday transactions, according to the two entities.
Making PHPC available on Ronin is the first step in this journey, potentially enabling various use cases at scale for millions of Web 3.0 gamers in the Philippines, from cashing out in-game earnings to using crypto for in-store payments.
Coins.ph, established in 2014, is among the most established crypto brands in the Philippines with over 18 million users. The company is fully regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and holds both Virtual Currency and Electronic Money Issuer licences from the central bank.
Featured image credit: Edited from Coins.Ph