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How many crypto owners are in the Philippines?
It is estimated that nearly 7 million Filipinos, 6.13% of the total population, own cryptocurrency.¹
State of crypto in the Philippines
The crypto scene in the Philippines has been blooming by leaps and bounds, as reflected in Chainalysis’s Global Crypto Adoption Index 2022, where it now ranks second, only behind its ASEAN neighbour, Vietnam. ² As a country with the world’s largest remittance markets, the Philippines is home to Coins.ph, Rebit.ph and Bitmarket.ph, who have led the financial revolution and modernisation of the Philippines’s financial industry in recent years. The growing popularity of crypto has not gone unnoticed as the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has announced it intends to launch a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) project in the final quarter of 2022.³ This project is in consonance with the country’s goal to transition into digital payment.
Furthermore, the Philippines welcome their new president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., widely known to be an advocate for digital and technological innovation. Marcos Jr. emphasised “the need to adopt emerging technologies that could eventually pave for crypto adoption to expand further soon”.⁴ Likewise, the government and central bank have already begun working with experts to monitor and adequately track financial institutions utilising blockchain or crypto technology, so as to facilitate a safer environment for their investors, stakeholders and citizens.⁵
Philippines crypto ownership demographics
As of 2022, it is reported that Filipino men are 1.7x more likely to own crypto as opposed to women, with 63% of Filipino crypto owners estimated to be men.⁶ To no surprise, Bitcoin tops the list as the most commonly owned cryptocurrency, with an estimated 37% of Filipino crypto owners owning Bitcoin.⁷ Lastly, almost half of Filipino crypto owners lie in the 18-34 years age bracket (46%) while 35% are aged 35-54 years old.₈
Crypto’s rising popularity in the Philippines
- The Philippines is Asia’s ‘Blockchain Hub’. Where does India Stand? – September 2022
The Philippines has further established its prominence as a blockchain hub in Asia as it hopes to create the “Crypto Valley of Asia” in Cagayan Valley. It aims to mimic Aug in Switzerland, the birthplace of Ethereum, which is now home to almost 200 blockchain companies. With this Crypto Valley initiative, the government hopes to encourage the upcoming generation to pick up careers in tech-related industries so as to drive the country’s economic standing.
- For Cash-reliant Filipinos, trust in FinTech is growing – February 2022
According to a UOB’s Fintech in ASEAN 2021 report, it has concluded that although the Philippines is still a cash-reliant country, there has been a steady and positive increase in the adoption of cryptocurrencies and digital payment. Additionally, Filipinos have one of the highest levels of trust in cryptocurrency as compared to their ASEAN counterparts (48%), with statistics showing that one in three Filipinos uses cryptocurrency exchanges. The Philippines Fintech Report 2022 estimated that the value of cryptocurrency transactions from 2019 to 2020 has increased almost fourfold to US$1.5billion, with volume reaching 7.2 million transactions.
