Bitcon ‘halving’ seen to boost PH crypto adoption

The Philippines is expected to soon experience another Axie Infinity phenomenon, an event characterized by the massive adoption of cryptocurrency due to positive sentiment toward these digital assets.

Local cryptocurrency exchange PDAX is expecting the scheduled bitcoin halving next month will spawn a new batch of traders, just like what happened in 2021 with then popular play-to-earn blockchain-based game where users earned tokens as rewards.

“I think this halving incident could lead to the greatest adoption of cryptocurrencies in the Philippines. I guess it is [another] Axie Infinity,” PDAX CEO and founder Nichel Gaba said in a recent event in Makati. In bitcoin halving, which happens every four years, production of new digital assets is slowed down to drive up their value.

This upcoming event is seen to lift bitcoin price to around P4 million, along with the recent approval of bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the United States that has enabled the digital assets to be traded via traditional regulated securities exchanges.

Gaba observed the transaction volume on their platform growing by about four times recently.

Apart from optimism about these assets, Gaba said that more Filipinos are likely to get into crypto because now, trading these digital assets has become more accessible due to virtual asset service providers.

“This is the first halving event when around 80 million Filipinos have access to crypto on an app on their phone,” he said. INQ