Coins.ph leads Digital Asset Exchange Alliance in Southeast Asia
Coins.ph, a leading Filipino cryptocurrency exchange, has taken a step towards promoting responsible and secure cryptocurrency usage in Southeast Asia through the establishment of the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance (DAEA).
Regional industry partnership
In a press release published on Friday, the company announced the formation of the industry body. The strategic partnership includes other prominent licensed exchanges in the region, namely Coinhako (Singapore), Indodax (Indonesia) and Bitkub (Thailand).
Wei Zhou, CEO of Coins.ph, expressed enthusiasm about the collaborative effort, stating:
“Coins.ph is excited to work with our Southeast Asian counterparts in advancing the responsible and secure use of cryptocurrencies and promoting the development of user-friendly and compliant products for users.”
Zhou emphasized the belief that the alliance’s combined efforts would contribute to building a more robust and resilient cryptocurrency ecosystem in Southeast Asia.
Unifying licensed exchanges
The DAEA represents a milestone in unifying licensed exchanges across the Southeast Asian region, aiming to enhance regulatory advocacy by leveraging the collective expertise and experience of the four founding exchanges. It seeks to foster collaboration by sharing protocols and best practices to elevate service quality and bolster security measures.
Educating users about the benefits of trading on licensed exchanges and the importance of following regulatory guidelines is a core commitment of the Alliance. This extends to promoting financial literacy, consumer protection and responsible trading practices in the cryptocurrency space.
The cryptocurrency sector has experienced an outsized proportion of scams and fraud. Within that, Southeast Asian crypto users and platforms have been hardest hit, with instances in recent months of malicious activity across the region, from pig butchering scams to exchange hacks and crypto-related phishing. Regulators have started to counteract such problems, but a level of greater organization within crypto through bodies like the DAEA will go some way further towards protecting crypto users.
Building a safer ecosystem
Yusho Liu, CEO of Coinhako, highlighted the significance of the Alliance for the entire cryptocurrency industry, emphasizing the role of licensed exchanges in fostering trust and growth. He stated:
“By collaborating with Coins.ph, Indodax, and Bitkub, we are taking a monumental step towards building a safer and more transparent ecosystem for users in the region.”
As the blockchain space evolves with a growing emphasis on regulatory compliance, Coins.ph, along with Coinhako, Indodax and Bitkub, has distinguished itself by prioritizing security and trust through obtaining licenses from their respective regulatory bodies.
Moving towards self-regulation
2022 brought with it some spectacular crypto platform failures such as FTX, which affected locations like Singapore disproportionately. A regulatory backlash has resulted in 2023, and it is amid that backdrop that we are seeing increasing efforts towards better organization and self-regulation within the crypto sector.
The formation of the Digital Asset eXchange Alliance in South Korea, involving a consortium of the top five exchange businesses in the country in July of this year, is a stand-out example. In Taiwan, regulators have been actively fostering self-regulation. Those efforts have resulted in the establishment of an industry group of Taiwanese Exchanges.
