Singapore firm to launch crypto wallet in PH

MANILA  -Singapore-based firm Account Labs will launch its crypto wallet in the Philippines next week, marking their financial product’s first venture outside Singapore as it aims to expand in Southeast Asia.

Account Labs said it will roll out  the UniPass Wallet in the Philippines on Oct 12, to be followed by the launch in Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

“We acknowledge real-life, everyday challenges users face when doing (peer-to-peer) transfers, especially in emerging markets where international remittances are slow and expensive,” Account Labs chief executive officer (CE) Lixin Liu said in a statement.

“UniPass Wallet is offering solutions to address these through convenience and stability,” he added.

Account labs touts UniPass as a smart contract wallet, with users able to use their Google accounts to set up and log into their Web3 wallet. This eliminates the required complex 12-word seed phrases upon signing in crypto wallets, it said.

UniPass users can also reload their wallets with Mastercard or Visa cards, or other digital wallets like GCash or Maya. Further, it said users can directly send stablecoins to other wallets, without the need to move assets across different exchanges.

The company said UniPass wallet will offer low transaction fees, ranging from $0.01 to $0.02 or about 50 centavos to P1, noting that users can save more and avail themselves of reimbursements from three transfers each day.

“As a (peer-to-peer) platform, no extra fees from intermediaries are being charged that can slow down the process. With the power of blockchain offered by UniPass wallet, stablecoin transactions can be settled within seconds,”  it said.

“This significantly improves cross-border transactions, offering a major upgrade for gig workers in emerging markets. UniPass, a self-custody wallet, lets users gain full control of their funds in a decentralized and secure environment,” it said.

According to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, the Philippines currently ranks sixth in the world when it comes to cryptocurrency adoption, with the Southeast Asian country sliding from the second spot last year.

READ: From No. 2 to No. 6: PH falters in global crypto ranking

Blockchain Council of the Philippines president Donald Lim recently said the Philippines could be Asia’s blockchain capital by 2028 given the increasing adoption of nonfungible tokens, which are a kind of cryptocurrency.

Back in July, Lim said that there were at least 4.3 million crypto assets owners in the Philippines.