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The Philippine Digital Asset Exchange, a cryptocurrency trading platform licensed by the central bank of the Philippines, now has more than 450,000 users, a 22.5-times increase from 2019, the bourse has told local media.
Fast facts
- PDAX Chief Executive Nichel Gaba said many Filipinos were crypto-curious, which explained why the number of traders on the platform had increased from 20,000 in the second half of 2019 to almost 500,000 today.
- Meanwhile, the Philippine Stock Exchange wants to be the country’s platform for trading crypto assets when regulators issue rules to govern the sector.
- In April, the International Monetary Fund criticized the Philippine government’s lack of supervision of crypto exchanges. The IMF warned that international confidence in the nation could suffer if exchanges were left unchecked and potentially abused in financial crimes.
- In January, the central bank reported having seen “accelerated growth in the use of virtual currency exchanges in the past three years” and said it was “high time that [it] broaden the scope of existing regulations.”