Coins.ph turnaround to profit isn’t just about Trump, CEO says

Mention the crypto boom sparked by Donald Trump’s return to the White House and Coins.ph CEO Wei Zhou puts his hands in the air like a fan cheering on his favorite team.

“100%!” he says. “Like four hands up, if I had four hands.”

Trump, who was sworn into office on January 19, promised to make crypto a national priority during his campaign, and on Thursday, he signed an executive order supporting the growth of the crypto industry. Since his victory in November, bitcoin has climbed from around US$40,000 to over US$100,000.

Coins.ph CEO Wei Zhou says the company hit profitability in 2024. / Photo credit: Coins.ph

Zhou, the former chief financial officer of Binance who led the consortium that bought Coins.ph, a Philippine crypto exchange, in 2022, believes that a pro-crypto US president signals the end of the industry having to swim against a stream of US antagonism.

“I feel like we’re going to be having this massive tailwind coming into our industry with pro-crypto policies,” he adds.

Both 2022 and 2023 were not good years for Betur, the name of the company that owns the Coins.ph exchange. In 2022, Betur’s total comprehensive loss was US$16.6 million, which extended to US$18.7 million the following year.

In 2023, the company also faced a hack that drew off US$6 million in XRP coins, a token that runs on the Ripple ecosystem. The company was forced to get a capital injection from its Singapore-based parent – Global Commerce Technologies – to meet capital requirements. The auditors of Betur’s 2023 financial reports even included a note that they were concerned about the company’s ability to continue operations.

Losses at Global Commerce Technologies totaled US$5.1 million in 2022 and US$29.8 million in 2023. Besides Betur, Global Commerce Technologies also runs payments platform DCPay Philippines.

Image credit: Made by Tech in Asia using Midjourney

According to Zhou, the Trump-induced surge in crypto has enabled Coins.ph to hit profitability in 2024, the first time it has done so in two years. He adds that November and December were the exchange’s best months since 2021.

For Philippine companies dealing with digital assets, the higher price in pesos for cryptocurrencies – a result of the strengthening US dollar combined with rising crypto prices – will directly impact their profitability as transaction values and volumes rise, says Filbert Richerd Ng Tsai, managing director and analyst at Equity Labs.

Zhou says that Coins.ph’s trading volume increased over 3x to US$1 billion a month in 2024 from a year earlier. Revenue, which was US$1.9 million in 2023, grew more than 4x year on year.

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