PayMaya users in the Philippines now enabled to buy and sell digital currencies seamlessly

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One of the largest providers of digital payments services in the Philippines is set to offer digital currency services. PayMaya will let users easily buy, sell and earn digital currencies according to local reports, following in the steps of its biggest rival, GCash.

PayMaya will be aiming to provide ‘a full-suite experience’ for digital currency buying with its new feature, TechInAsia reports. Aside from trading, the startup will allow users to spend their digital currencies through its payment systems. 

Upgraded users will reportedly be able to trade in a variety of digital assets directly from their PayMaya wallets to Philippine pesos. The platform will also allow users to buy and sell digital assets with no extra cash in or cash out fees.

“With the PayMaya e-wallet already a part of their everyday life for daily purchases and transactions, our customers now want to be able to buy and earn crypto smartly and seamlessly. That is why we are making it an integrated feature in our e-wallet app,” Shailesh Baidwan, PayMaya’s president, commented. 

PayMaya boasts of over 40 million users in the Philippines, close to two-thirds of the country’s adult population. Its electronic money issuance and now its virtual asset service provider’s businesses are both licensed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Philippines’ central bank. 

It’s backed by global giants, including Chinese tech behemoth Tencent, New York-based KKR private equity fund the International Finance Corporation. Its parent company Voyager Innovations raised $210 million recently at a $1.4 billion valuation.

“Being at the forefront of digital payments and financial services, expanding into crypto is part of our roadmap as we build the Philippines’ most accessible end-to-end money platform,” Baidwan added.

PayMaya follows in the footsteps of GCash, the country’s largest mobile payments provider with over 55 million users. GCash added digital currency purchase and sale services last month in a move that CEO Marth Sazon said would “further enhance the customers’ experience and enable them to power up their finances for better lives.”

As CoinGeek reported recently, Coins.ph, which was once the unrivaled digital exchange leader in the country, was acquired by a former Binance executive for $200 million. The purchase is expected to take Coins.ph back to its roots as an exchange after it branched to other sectors such as bill payments which saw it lose ground in the digital asset market.

Watch: CoinGeek New York panel, Future of Digital Asset Trading & Financial Services