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The Philippines as a global leader in digital asset adoption, is an open secret, with one study after another confirming that the country’s aggressive tech adoption has seen tens of millions take to digital assets. Wei Zhou, the CEO of leading local exchange Coins.ph, said the country is quickly becoming a Web3 hub, and his exchange is rebuilding its business model to become a Web3 native company.

The Philippines made global headlines in blockchain adoption by becoming the world leader in play-to-earn gaming, home to 40% of Axie Infinity’s users. This P2E adoption has laymanized blockchain and attracted over ten million Filipinos to other sectors, including DeFi, NFTs, and the metaverse.

“Through the popularity of some of the blockchain games, the Philippines is leading the way in NFT ownership, in cryptocurrency trading as well as using this new technology to both play and earn money,” Zhou told CoinGeek Backstage host Claire Celdran.

Zhou cited a Chainalysis study that showed the Philippines is the world’s second-largest digital asset hub, with nearly 20% of the population having interacted with or owned a digital currency.

“That’s far larger than the 5-10% average global adoption,” he noted.

Zhou took over as the CEO at Coins.ph, which is the largest digital asset exchange in the Philippines, earlier this year, and as he told CoinGeek Backstage, he has been focusing on recovering the ground that the exchange lost in 2020 and 2021 when adoption surged in the Philippines.

“What we want to do right now is rebuild our business to be a much more Web3 native company to allow for our users and new users to use Coins to access Web3 services. This includes the trading of digital assets and earning yield from them, and basically deploying digital assets in the metaverse and in games,” he stated.

Watch: CoinGeek Backstage episode with nChain’s Nick King

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