Emphasizing that crypto has opened up opportunities for young, tech-savvy entrepreneurs, peer-to-peer crypto trading platform NoOnes emphasized its intention to expand in the Philippines.
What’s the Significance? There are four things that NoOnes emphasized they could help the crypto community in the Philippines.
Expansion Plan #1: Remittances
According to NoOnes, the “high level” of crypto adoption in the Philippines is partly due to the huge number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
- The Philippines has become such a significant market for crypto that the government is considering whether it should issue a Central Bank Digital Currency, as per the trading platform.
But despite such initiatives for OFWs, overseas workers have been paying too much for remittance transfers for a long time.
“I won’t name them, but we all know the companies that have been ripping off expat workers for years. These overseas workers are away from their families, they’re working hard, often doing manual labor, working seven days a week, and then some big company comes along and takes a huge chunk out of the money they need to send home to help their families. It’s just plain wrong.”
Ray Youssef, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, NoOnes
This is where NoOnes emphasized the help of blockchain technology to ease the process of remittance in the country.
- The benefit of using crypto instead of a traditional money transfer is that the fees are often much lower and the transaction happens almost instantly.
“I’ve heard many stories of expats who go down to a money transfer office in the country they work in, hand over local currency, pay a huge fee – sometimes 30% or more – and then a family member has to wait a few days before going down to the Philippine office of the money transfer company and wait in a line until they get the money. It’s crazy.”
Ray Youssef, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, NoOnes
Consequently, NoOnes stressed that cryptocurrencies are a way for unbanked and underbanked people to access financial services.
“Our goal is to help the Philippines reach its potential. In the countries where we operate, our marketplace creates opportunities for the people who live there, particularly the youth. They are the future. We are not a Western company coming to the Global South to take money out. We are a Global South business partnering with the people who live there. We think everyone should be prosperous, including people from the Global South, so our business plan includes returning 50% of our profits to the people who use our platform. It was important to base NoOnes in the Global South because we not only create jobs by using local people whenever we can, we also have boots on the ground – and that means we listen to what our users tell us and then give them the products they need. We are here to build the Global South – that’s our mission.”
Ray Youssef, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, NoOnes
By The Numbers: The data provided by NoOned to justify the need for their service to the remittance sector in the Philippines.
- 16 million Filipinos use crypto, either to trade, invest, or for payments and remittances.
- 2.33 million Filipinos are officially registered as OFWs.
- 10 million Filipinos are said to be the overall number of OFWs.
- 65% of adult Filipinos only have bank accounts.
Expansion Plan #2: Opportunities
Because of the adoption of blockchain technology, the way businesses operate had massive changes and offered more opportunities, explained NoOnes.
- It is because Filipino entrepreneurs and traders are taking advantage by using crypto to grow their businesses or create new ones,
- In addition, merchants are increasingly adding crypto to their payment gateways.
- For NoOnes, this growth led to expectations that the Philippines could become a regional hub for crypto in Southeast Asia for having a large user base, high trading volumes, and a huge overseas workforce sending money home.
“There are lots of opportunities for entrepreneurs and traders in the Philippines, and that’s what gets me excited. Our partner program is going strong, we’ve given away lots of money with our cashback promotions, we have low fees, and we are supporting crypto education with the NoOnes Academy so that people can learn how to buy and trade crypto safely.”
Ray Youssef, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, NoOnes
Expansion Plan #3: Safety and Security
For Filipinos who are concerned about their online safety and security, particularly when it comes to their money, NoOnes highlighted that Filipinos might try their platform and wallet.
“At NoOnes, security and transparency are our number one priority. We prioritize the safety of our platform and the community who use it by using enhanced security measures, as well as cutting-edge internal and external technologies to evaluate risk. We want to be proactive so we can avoid any threats.”
Ray Youssef, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, NoOnes
NoOnes then expressed its commitment to blockchain education by regularly campaigning to raise awareness among its users and the wider community about phishing scams and other security threats.
“We believe that an informed community is a safer community, so we make sure to give our users the knowledge they need to keep safe on our marketplace. “Our first job at NoOnes is to keep people safe. We don’t have a business if we don’t keep people safe and that’s why the safety of our users is our first priority. An important part of that responsibility is to educate our users.”
Ray Youssef, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, NoOnes
Expansion Plan #4: The Future
To conclude its plans, NoOnes expressed that they are committing to helping young Filipino entrepreneurs and traders understand crypto and show them how it can change lives and make whole communities better.
- This is because the trading platform expects that the Philippines will soon adapt blockchain technology sooner.
- Youssef also said, “it’s a great time to be in crypto if you’re a Filipino.”
“I was born in the Global South, and my parents had to leave their home in Egypt and go to the U.S. just like the overseas workers from the Philippines. My parents had to leave so they could provide for their family, and that’s why my sister and I grew up in the U.S. But we never forgot where we came from, so I have a lot of empathy for the people in the Philippines who are forced to leave their families. We want to help them by making remittances cheaper, but we also want to help them build the Philippines because no one who is truly free should have to leave their home to be successful. Crypto and P2P offer so many opportunities, and I know the youth of the Philippines are ready to make their mark on the world – that’s why NoOnes is going big in the Philippines.”
Ray Youssef, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, NoOnes
This article is published on BitPinas: Why Trading Platform NoOnes is Betting Big on the Philippines as a Crypto Powerhouse
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