Stables Money partners with Coins.ph to use PHPC for cross-border remittances
Stables Money, an Australian platform that claims to be on a mission “to make stablecoins usable for everyday use,” has partnered with Philippines-based digital assets platform Coins.ph to use the latter’s peso-pegged stablecoin (PHPC) for remittances.
Peso-denominated stablecoin
In a press release published to the Coins.ph website on Aug. 28, the firm laid out details of the deal. PHPC is a retail stablecoin which is backed by Philippine peso-denominated cash reserves and pegged to the peso on a 1:1 basis. The stablecoin was launched by Coins.ph in July.
It’s an ERC-20 token which runs on the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM)-compatible Ronin blockchain network. The stablecoin was accepted into the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ regulatory sandbox in May.
$35 billion in remittances
The Philippines has always been seen as a lucrative remittance market due to the high number of Filipinos who work outside of the country, sending funds home to family on a regular basis. In 2020, remittances back to the Philippines from overseas were just shy of $35 billion, according to data from the World Bank.
It appears that Australia’s Stables Money has identified this opportunity, with the company entering the Philippine market back in March. The Philippine peso already accounts for over 25% of all outward transactions sent via the platform.
Stables Money CEO Bernardo Bilotta spoke to the opportunity that the company is trying to exploit. He stated:
"Recognizing the Philippines as a key player in global remittances, we expanded to deliver smooth PHP transactions. With 28.44% of our send transactions now in PHP, this move highlights our commitment to making cross-border payments hassle-free for those sending money to the Philippines.”
Coins.ph has the intention of engaging in further industry partnerships in an effort to expand the reach of PHPC. That will mean additional collaborations with crypto exchanges, digital asset wallet providers and those financial institutions who are increasingly delving into the world of stablecoins.
Commenting on this latest development, Wei Zhou, Coins.ph CEO, stated:
”We’re encouraged to see growing adoption of PHPC among our user base. Our partnerships with Stables and Ronin underscore the vast potential of PHPC in cross-border transactions, trading and other financial activities.”
Stables has also made efforts to expand through the use of Circle’s USDC stablecoin. Last month, it partnered with global payments card platform Mastercard in a collaboration which facilitates Stables users in purchasing goods using USDC at locations across 27 European countries where Mastercard is accepted.
The firm’s partnership with Mastercard dates back to March 2023 when it entered into a similar collaboration relative to the Asia-Pacific region.
Previous peso-based stablecoin projects
Coins.ph is not the first entity to try and drive adoption of a Philippine peso-based stablecoin. The Southeast Asian country’s UnionBank launched a similar product back in 2019. However, the product failed to find product-market fit and ultimately, it was withdrawn from the market. The company tried once again in 2022, attempting to launch a similar product through its digital bank subsidiary UnionDigital, in an effort that seems to have failed.
More recently still, UnionBank subsidiary company UBX launched a peso-based stablecoin on Polygon back in March.
