FINTECH start-up Philippine Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX) will introduce next month to the general public an enterprise-grade trading platform for digital assets and cryptocurrencies.
PDAX Cofounder and chief marketing officer Krystian Kucharzyk said the objective of the company is to initially develop awareness on digital trading because it is the direction of the business. “We believe the future of investing is digital,”Kucharzyk said in an interview with the BusinessMirror on Wednesday.
By using blockchain technology, Kucharzyk pointed out that PDAX is determined to facilitate financial inclusion across the Philippines by using cryptocurrencies that significantly reduce the cost of inbound remittances for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and at the same time radically improve the accessibility of financial services for all Filipinos.
He said PDAX also aims to promote the blockchain technology ecosystem in the Philippines. “We want to encourage other players who are using blockchain technology to have a platform which they can trade assets that are being made,” he said.
“We want to encourage people to use blockchain to trade the things because they have an open market place on which they can trade that they have built, whereas before with the dealer model, it was too expensive in cryptocurrencies or to create these projects,” he added.
Kucharzyk cryptocurrency and blockchain are going to be relevant for people who will start tokenizing their real world assets such as real estate, gold, commodities and stocks. Being the platform of cryptocurrency, she said blockchain will convert these real life assets into tokens that can be traded in the future. “Because we feel that we are the first exchange, we feel this is the way to promote cryptocurrency,” he pointed out.
He said PDAX is bullish as there are currently 5 million Filipinos involved in cryptocurrency activities. Furthermore, he said PDAX can also be a major remittance platform of 10 million OFWs. “We can partner with companies for cryptocurrency transactions for remittance so their dependents can change them into fiat currency,” he said.
Kucharzyk, said the company also wants to tap the unbanked market so they can have the chance to invest that will give them financial empowerment. To encourage more people, he said PDAX will charge P200 for those who are interested to invest.
“PDAX is a Web-based platform and will be available on mobile app later. You just have to basically set up an account on the platform and deposit the money on their platform in your account and you can trade directly to the market,” he said.
PDAX is the first digital asset exchange that has chosen to focus operations fully in the Philippines. It is venture-backed by investors from Singapore, Korea, the United States and the Philippines.
Kucharzyk PDAX aims to reduce the hefty price markups and high trading fees associated with investing in cryptocurrencies in the Philippines today by bringing efficiency to the market. PDAX’s user-friendly platform, Gaba added, enables its users to exchange pesos directly with multiple cryptocurrencies and leverages the same order-matching technology used by stock exchanges like the NYSE and PSE to match buyers and sellers at the lowest available prices on the market.
To promote the accessibility of cryptocurrency, PDAX was founded on three core missions: regulatory transparency, tech-driven security and dedicated consumer education about investing in this new asset class.
He said PDAX is committed to fully complying with regulators. The Securities and Exchange Commission, in collaboration with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and licenses specifically for order-book exchanges.