Coins.ph banks on cryptoverse even as storm clouds gather

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Hello readers,

“Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here.”

Corporate restructuring expert John Ray III said this in November when he became CEO of FTX, the crypto exchange that went bust. Coming from someone who has over 40 years of experience in overseeing the clean-up of bankrupt companies like US energy giant Enron, that’s quite the statement.

The spectacular crash of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX empire shattered investor confidence in the cryptoverse, which was already crumbling after the Terra debacle and a host of other halted withdrawals and missing funds this year.

More than a million people lost a total of several billion dollars in the FTX fiasco, which has raised more questions about the cryptoverse. That said, it remains to be seen if this catastrophe will be the final nail in the coffin or the dawn of a new era for the crypto space.

As regulators scramble to sort out the FTX mess, calls to boost protection for crypto investors via regulation – in a manner similar to that of the stock and bond market – are getting louder.

Wei Zhou, CEO of fintech firm Coins.ph, might be a proponent of such a measure. In today’s featured piece, the former Binance CFO says while he doesn’t believe that regulatory compliance is a “key selling point,” it’s important to let users know that their money is being sent to a regulated financial institution.

He also discussed his plans to relaunch Coins Pro, the Philippines’ first digital currency exchange, despite the far-from-ideal timing and charted Coins.ph’s decentralized finance (DeFi) wallet ambitions.

Today we look at:

• The relaunch of Coins.ph’s crypto exchange and its DeFi wallet goals
• The seed round of an Indonesia-based social commerce startup
• Other newsy highlights such as Binance’s acquisition of Tokocrypto and a US$1.5 billion pledge from VCs to back Vietnamese startups

— Shravanth

P.S.: If you’re an entrepreneur looking for funding, fill out this form to get your company featured on our list of fundraising startups.

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Into the cryptoverse

Sowing the seeds

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