I was part of a startup in the Philippines that may very well be one of the very first few companies in the country that dabbled in cryptocurrency. This was a few years back, when BTC was just but a few Pesos/Dollars.
The community was small then, with just a few geeks gathering to talk about the potential of the blockchain. Or the future of money. Well, the very idea of monetization.
The interest was there, but as it is, so were the naysayers (always will be, it still happens now!). You can't blame anyone for this, anyway, considering that fiat's king in this third-world country.
But, that's what makes the Philippines such an interesting environment when it comes to cryptocurrency. The country has a large number of unbanked citizens. And yet, given the poverty, everyone is just into social media (as far as I know, the Philippines tops social media usage globally).
And even without having any access to bank account or a credit account, almost everyone here has a smartphone.
Enter 2020. The dreaded lockdown. The anxiety loomed on almost everyone on how to earn some cash. Smart telecom companies took this an opportunity, though, by strongly pushing the large smartphone users in the country to realize just how much power their devices have in both earning and purchasing goods.
And so did almost everyone in the country realized just how convenient a cashless society is. And cryptocurrency, regardless of which type, was now an even hotter topic.
Who knows what the future is in store for cryptocurrency in the Philippines? One thing is for sure, it's gonna be a really interesting ride!