PayMaya ventures into crypto trading

MANILA, Philippines — Digital financial services firm PayMaya is introducing a cryptocurrency feature in its e-wallet app to cater to the growing popularity of crypto in the country.

Through its all-in-one finance app experience, PayMaya said it is enabling Filipinos to easily buy and earn digital assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum for as low as P1.

PayMaya said the new offering is part of the company’s overall thrust to go beyond payments by making financial services like crypto more accessible to the general public.

“We are very excited to launch this feature, a big step up in making crypto accessible to every Filipino through their PayMaya app. Being at the forefront of digital payments and financial services, expanding into crypto is part of our roadmap as we build the Philippines’ most accessible end-to-end money platform,” PayMaya president Shailesh Baidwan said.

Unlike other e-wallets and apps, PayMaya said customers may learn to use crypto, cash in to their wallets, buy and sell coins, and spend their crypto earnings all in their PayMaya account.

It said upgraded users can trade in a variety of the most popular coins directly from their PayMaya wallet in Philippine pesos and they can also seamlessly buy and sell crypto anytime with no extra cash in and cash out fees.

The feature is fully integrated into the app experience, providing convenience at the back of its secure platform and 99.9 percent app uptime rate, according to PayMaya.

Aside from Bitcoin and Ethereum, other popular coins and tokens available for trading in the PayMaya app are Cardano, Chainlink, Uniswap, Solana, Quant, Polkadot, Polygon, and Tether, with more to be introduced soon.

PayMaya said it developed the feature under its Invest platform in connection with Coinbase Institutional, the largest publicly traded crypto company in the world and the trusted bridge to the crypto-economy.

According to PayMaya, Coinbase Institutional provides the scale and stability needed to successfully participate in the crypto economy.

“We see the rise in popularity of crypto, especially among our digital-first younger users. With the PayMaya e-wallet already a part of their everyday life for daily purchases and transactions, our customers now want to be able to buy and earn crypto smartly and seamlessly. That is why we are making it an integrated feature in our e-wallet app,” Baidwan said.

PayMaya secured its virtual asset services provider (VASP) from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas last January.

A VASP is an entity that offers services or engages in activities “that provide facility for the transfer or exchange of virtual assets,” which include cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.

PayMaya provides more than 44 million Filipinos access to financial services through its consumer platforms as of end-2021.