• The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas will continue to speak the uncertainties caused by the growing use of cryptocurrencies in the country.
• BSP’s Technology Risk and Innovation Supervision Department showed the doubled value of transactions concerning virtual currencies.
• Regulators approach these new kinds of technology simply for innovations with a great solution and consumer protection.

Due to the growing popular demand of virtual currencies in the country, the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) continues to speak about the risk of being involved in using cryptocurrency. While the technology is being restricted in some countries, BSP Deputy Governor stated that the technology behind this virtual currency can be useful for payments and can even bypass the current banking system.

Blockchain and general forms of distributed ledger technology can be useful for payment and settlements for peer-to-peer transactions and therefore could potentially bypass the banks and banking system in general .
BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said.

Being one of the friendliest countries towards cryptocurrencies, the value of transactions involving virtual currencies in the country almost doubled from $189.18 million in 2017 to $390.37 million last year according to the latest data of the BSP’s Technology Risk and Innovation Supervision Department.

The BSP approaches these new forms of technology based on regulatory sandboxes that would allow the regulator to balance encouraging technology innovation with a robust solution and consumer protection.
Guinigundo said.

The conversion of Philippine Peso to other cryptocurrencies for payments and remittances with $208.27 million. And the conversion of virtual currencies to Peso and other currencies with $173.33 million through approved crypto exchanges in the country.

The BSP so far approved approximately of 10 registrations of cryptocurrency exchanges in the country.

Source: Philstar