Philippine cryptocurrency exchange startup gets $12.5m in funding

Cryptocurrency exchange platform Philippine Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX) has raised US$12.5 million in funding, led by an undisclosed UK-based VC firm.

Hong Kong-based fintech company BC Group and Philippine digital bank UnionBank’s venture arm UBX also joined the round. Existing investors Beenext Ventures, CMT Digital, and Ripple also participated.

PDAX founder and CEO Nichel Gaba / Photo credit: PDAX

Founded in 2017 and licensed by the Philippines’ central bank, PDAX launched its cryptocurrency exchange in 2018 to allow Filipinos to buy bitcoins using local currency. It is riding on the popularity of cryptocurrencies in the country, which has seen the third-highest rate of cryptocurrency usage in the world behind Nigeria and Vietnam, according to the World Economic Forum.

“We are already making remittances into the country much cheaper by helping remittance companies utilize cryptocurrencies and providing them with a deep and liquid market to convert crypto into Philippine pesos,” said PDAX founder Nichel Gaba.

PDAX claims that its user count grew by 25x while monthly volume transactions rose by 80x since local Covid-19 lockdowns started in March 2020.

The tech startup has also entered the tokenized securities space, launching a blockchain-enabled app with the Bureau of Treasury and UnionBank to enable investments in retail treasury bonds.

In February, a major service outage on PDAX kept a number of investors from entering the platform after an alleged conversion error committed by a large bitcoin seller, also known as “whale,” prompted the company to shut out users from its platform, reported Interaksyon.

Correction (August 20, 12:30pm) Story edited identifiers for some investors.