Moneybees eyes ₧2B in transaction volume

CRYPTOCURRENCY exchange service provider Moneybees Forex Corp. is looking to book P2-billion worth of transactions this year, banking on increasing interest in the trading of the digital asset.

To achieve this, Moneybees targets to open 100 outlets by the end of this year.

“With the rising demand for cryptocurrency trading and investment, we aim to facilitate P2-billion worth of transaction volume in 2021,” Moneybees CEO Paulo Roberto E. Del Puerto was quoted in a statement as saying. “To serve more customers, we’re also looking at opening more outlets in malls around the Philippines and partner with major market players in the remittance and money exchange industry.”

This month, the cryptocurrency exchange player said that it opened three new outlets in partnership with money changer Tivoli Money Exchange, bringing its total channels to seven.

Moneybees said customers may be able to buy and sell cryptocurrencies through Tivoli’s branches in Trinoma, Glorietta and Okada. Customers may transact as high as P5 million per day.

“The partnership with Tivoli is a great step for us to fulfill our mission of making crypto more accessible in the Philippines by providing a familiar and secure way of buying and selling crypto via [over the counter],” Del Puerto said.

Moneybees, which provides over-thecounter services for cryptocurrency trading, was founded in 2017. It teams up with moneychanger companies with physical outlets to facilitate cryptocurrency transactions. The financial service firm is duly registered with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and with the Anti-money Laundering Council as remittance agent with virtual currency exchange service.

“We welcome both new crypto and experienced traders and investors to try out our service. We are very excited to start rolling out to other partners in the next few months,” he said.

Moneybees noted that the surge in cryptocurrency transactions have prompted the price increases for digital assets Bitcoin and Ethereum, adding both peaked this month at $58,000 and $2,000, respectively. The latest developments, the firm said, brought the cryptocurrency market to over $1 trillion in market capitalization.

In 2017, the BSP released Circular 944, which is a regulatory framework that covers the guidelines for virtual currency exchanges. The Central Bank requires all cryptocurrency exchange service providers to be officially registered as remittance and transfer companies.