Coins.ph is once again sold at a staggering amount of PHP 10.2 Billion. Its now-former owner, Indonesian giant Gojek, held on to the financial giant for 3 years before deciding to let go. We’ll get into the details down below.

According to sources at The Ken, this transaction was performed because Gojek had decided to maintain its core focus on its hometown of Indonesia. The Philippines is no longer a priority for the firm with further investments being conducted into Vietnam and Singapore. Coins was started as one of the first outlets for cryptocurrency in our country but strayed away from this under the management of Gojek. In three years of ownership, the company strove to become the central point of general commerce and a champion for financial inclusion.

This might just change though. It has been confirmed that the buyer of Coins.ph is no other than Wei Zhou, who was formerly the Chief Finance Officer of Binance before a sudden exit in the first half of 2021. He is well-renowned for his knowledge of financial systems and vast pool of experience. There is no definite reason for his departure from Binance, although insider information has stated personal reasons as the primary cause. Before his stint at Binance, he was also the CFO at Grindr which is an LGBT dating application.

When asked about the success of Coins, its founder Ron Hose mentioned that he was happy for the platform’s success, especially since Coins.ph was sold for exponentially more than he let go of it in 2018. He also hopes that it becomes a cryptocurrency giant once again. According to Hose, there is still untapped potential since cryptocurrency is quickly becoming one of the largest economies in the country due to Play-to-Earn games like Axie Infinity. However, this growth could be threatened if an esteemed giant like Coinbase were to swoop in the country right now.

We’ll just have to wait and see what the plans are for Coins.ph under new ownership. We hope that it becomes a friendlier, easier way to transact with cryptocurrency in our country. If this can be integrated into an app with excellent traditional financial services rivaling those of GCash and PayMaya, then we’d officially call that a double whammy.