NegosyoIdeas.com was recently invited to Coins.ph’s Online Media Brown Bag session, where the team walked media and partners through their product roadmap, merchant tools, and cross-border payment ambitions. If you’re a Filipino entrepreneur exploring digital payments, e-commerce, or remittance-related business opportunities, here’s what you need to know.
Who is Coins.ph, Really?
Kicking off the session, Niel Mugas positioned Coins as one of the fastest-growing mobile wallets and digital asset platforms in the Philippines. The company is dual-licensed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) as both a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) and an Electronic Money Issuer (EMI), a regulatory foundation that matters a lot if you’re thinking about integrating with them for your business.
The numbers are eye-catching: over 5 million verified users and roughly $20 billion in transactions processed in the past year alone. That’s a massive addressable market for any negosyante looking to plug into a payments ecosystem.
What’s in the Product Stack?
Emmanuel Ignacio walked attendees through the platform’s core capabilities, which span both crypto trading and everyday payments:
- Buy, sell, convert, and spot trade crypto directly in the app
- WebPay, a checkout redirect flow where customers top up in-flow and get sent back to the merchant’s page once payment succeeds. Built for e-commerce, gaming, and digital platforms.
- QR in-store payments, a scan-and-confirm flow with in-app and SMS confirmation, designed with minimal integration friction so even small and medium enterprises can adopt it easily.
For local business owners, this last point is worth underlining: Coins is explicitly targeting SMEs with low-friction QR onboarding, not just big-box merchants.
Local Payments: Pricing and Rollout Plans
Adrian Cortez broke down the numbers business owners will care about most:
| Product | Fee |
|---|---|
| QRPH | 1.2% |
| WebPay | 1.0% |
| Crypto spread | ~1.0% |
| White-label “scan and pay” QR | ?1–?5 per successful transaction |
Settlement is instant via Instapay, with webhook confirmations for merchants who want to automate their back-office reconciliation.
On expansion, Coins says it’s moving beyond Metro Manila into Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, with merchant partnerships already active in Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, and Cagayan de Oro. If you’re building a business in these regional hubs, this is a signal that payment infrastructure (and the marketing dollars that come with it) is heading your way.
The Remittance Angle: A Big Opportunity for OFW-Focused Businesses
This is where things get interesting for anyone with a business model tied to Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). Kim Salonga presented data pegging the addressable overseas Filipino market at roughly 10.7 million people for 2025–2026, with the U.S. corridor alone accounting for about 40% of remittance flows into the Philippines.
Coins is positioning itself not just as a crypto app anymore, but as a cross-border payments and disbursement partner, using stablecoins (USDT/USDC) to move money across corridors and convert to local currency for same-day payouts. For businesses that serve OFW families, bills payment centers, remittance sub-agents, or fintech resellers, this could mean faster settlement and lower costs are coming down the pipeline.
Disbursement pricing shared during the session:
- Instapay: ?10 per payout
- PESAnet: ?5 per payout
There’s also a RAMP product, a fiat on/off-ramp API that lets platforms buy and sell stablecoins in-app, with Coins handling compliance, licensing, and KYC/AML on the backend, at pricing starting under 0.50%.
For the Bigger Players: Institutional Trading
For fintechs, exchanges, or high-volume traders, Coins also detailed an institutional-grade spot order book with volume-based fees scaling down to nearly 0.00–0.05% for top-tier clients, a detail more relevant to larger operators than to solo entrepreneurs, but worth knowing if you’re scaling up.
Market Leadership Claims
During the media Q&A, Coins made some bold claims about its market position: roughly 72% monthly active user share in Philippine crypto (per Emmanuel) and about 80% liquidity share in local corridors (per Niel). The team said supporting data would be shared afterward, so we’ll treat these as claims to watch rather than independently verified figures for now.
What’s Still Pending
Not everything is live yet. Lending and savings products are still going through BSP regulatory review before they can launch publicly, and the company noted it’s working closely with regulators as it expands its offerings through 2026.
Why This Matters for Negosyantes
Whether you’re running an online shop, a sari-sari store looking to accept digital payments, or a business that serves the OFW community, the throughline from this session is clear: Philippine payment rails are getting faster, cheaper, and more interconnected with global remittance flows. Keeping an eye on players like Coins.ph, including their pricing, their regional rollout, and their regulatory standing, can help you decide when and how to plug your business into these tools.
