Union Bank of the Philippines Launching Cryptocurrency ATM

[peter0425]

If majority of you guys are not aware, the bank has just open last year Union Bank Opens Blockchain Institute. So I don't know if this is just a marketing strategy on their side because it really looks that they wanted to be the first crypto friendly related bank in the Philippines.

I'm didn't know that there are blockchain institute in the country, so I wouldn't be really surprise if Philippines became one crypto hub specially with the exchanges, their crypto friendly attitude and of course the attitude of their banks.

[Ruffian1314]

I saw this news also 2 days ago and i think that its for their publicity only to gain more clients since we all know that many filipinos are into bitcoin but it can help to expose cryptocurrency in the philippines so many people won't think bitcoin as a scam and will now be acknowledged.

[Dudeperfect]

I appreciate the decision of the bank to allow crypto transactions but at the end of the day, merchants will anyhow convert crypto into the fiat currency. We need some mechanism and awareness regarding transactions only focused on cryptocurrency so that we as a consumer can directly spend our cryptocurrency at the same time merchants can do for the payments in crypto instead of converting it into any other form of currency. This is interrelated ecosystem and we must build a sustainable model for the same to improve the crypto industry.

[keanne_isaac]

This only show that banking sectors are taking seriously the huge potential of bitcoin and other cryptocurrency and this moved of union bank would be a start of banking sector to increase their profit in the future.

[Kemarit]

If majority of you guys are not aware, the bank has just open last year Union Bank Opens Blockchain Institute. So I don't know if this is just a marketing strategy on their side because it really looks that they wanted to be the first crypto friendly related bank in the Philippines.

I think it's a profit related approach. Knowing that the Philippines has a large market for crypto-users, they may have wanted to optimize the opportunity. Other more well known banks have already been open to crypto, as far as I know BPI and BDO, two major banks in the Philippines. I think Union bank is the first one to openly publicized and decided to launch a crypto ATM. It's a bold move for them considering that the Philippines has only been starting to warm up to the concept of crypto.

It's definitely profit related but it looks like they're doing good for the crypto enthusiast in the Philippines. But at the end of the day, those banks will make money out of everyone and will milk everyone as much as they can. So I have mix emotions though, it's a bold move but I'm not that confident that this is right recourse if they really wanted to promote crypto in the country, and I don't think that it may set any precedence whatsoever, majority of Philippine banks will remain hostile, I assume.

[slaman29]

Strange that I couldn't find a single piece of information on the website. I know it's probably not a big deal at all but I was really curious to see if this bank was serious about it. Who knows it starts a wave of SEA banks all offering it? Not that I'd ever buy from an ATM I would like very much to save the 10% fees and get it from a p2p trader, thank you;)

[pawanjain]

Well this sounds like a good news. Philippines is a huge country and it supporting bitcoin is a really good achievement.
I just hope that there are no legal issues that it has to face since launching a crypto ATM involves legal jurisdictions.
Once the launch is successful, I guess that many similar crypto ATMs will be launched and this will motivate the other countries to do the same as well.

[harizen]

I doubt it. The Philippines already has ye ol reliable and very famous Coins.ph; which is easy enough to convert Philippine peso to bitcoin back and forth with. Why would people use an ATM with higher fees? I only see this news as good due to increased publicity, and it shows that these kinds of businesses are green flags to the government.

The advantage is;with these crypto ATM, people can now make an instant transaction (cash-in - cashout) that is way better to the current instant withdrawal features of coins.ph which is LBC and Cebuana (no more Cebuana cashout next month leaving LBC the only instant cashout option). LBC and Cebuana withdrawal is sometimes pain in the ass with their delay sending of claiming details to the point that it will never totally send throughout the day at some of the cases. People need to wait for coins.ph office hours before it can be looked on and then refunded.

There are also lots of Unionbank ATM stationed nationwide especially at busy urban areas. If these Crypto ATM will be placed besides, at least on majority of their station, that will be an easy access "24/7", way better to former EgiveCash of Security Bank or dealing with a long lines on LBC, Cebuana and other remittances center.

My only concern is the rates + fees and hopefully it won't hurt much. Coins.ph fees is not that good to me but since they don't have a strong competition, no choice but to deal on that. But if the fees where just identical or have only a small difference with coins.ph fees, these UnionBAnk crypto ATMs will be a good alternative.

[teejayrichard2]

cryptocurrency ATM launched in Phillippines, this is definitely good news for the crypto world. It goes to show bitcoin and cryptocurrency usage is gradually spreading across the globe even faster than what we anticipated. This is just the beginning definitely

[finaleshot2016]

If majority of you guys are not aware, the bank has just open last year Union Bank Opens Blockchain Institute. So I don't know if this is just a marketing strategy on their side because it really looks that they wanted to be the first crypto friendly related bank in the Philippines.

The other countries are already accepting bitcoin in their banks and some of the project makers already created an ATM card that withdraws and deposit fiat and digital money. Good for them, Philippines are getting used on cryptocurrency and adopted it. Well, a marketing manager would also notice the great potential of the bitcoin so they started this blockchain instution here. This is one of the reasons why we still need banks in the future even there's a lot of online/digital wallet in the internet. I thought BDO will be the first who will step in the field of cryptocurrency because they didn't forbid and support crypto in transferring money from coins.ph

This news/article was already published last year and unionbank executive vice president and chief information officer notices the benefits of cryptocurrency, they saw a future on it.

[nydiacaskey01]

One good thing about Union Bank is they are doing the opposite of what the other Banks are not doing. BDO, one of the largest Bank in the Philippines is allegedly not allowing Cryptousers to open an account in their Bank. They ask first where the source of funds is coming and when they found out that it came from trading cryptocurencies, they will not allow you open an account.  I hope other Banks will follow what Union Bank is doing.

[rodel caling]

I think this is mainly for promotion of their bank -- they are probably trying to appeal to the younger generations and give themselves a reason to stand out among other banks. More power to them. I won't click on the link because I boycott bitcoin.com but I wonder is it available to everybody for use or only registered account holders? I also praise the government of the Philippines for maintaining a rather "hands off" approach when it comes to crypto regulations.

True, though I know that a lot of Filipino miners and traders utilize Unionbank's services for their needs, alongside BDO and BPI (which are the biggest banks here.) The Philippines is a country ripe for the picking for cryptocurrency investments and startups, as the country is somewhat friendly towards such ventures knowing that it could potentially drive profit and boost employment should someone decide to open up a firm here. Anyway, I don't think bitcoin ATMs are that relevant for the Filipino community, but it's a good way of telling and reminding people that at the least, the scene is somewhat ramping up its game.

Well I BDO and BPI bank is very useful to convert bitcoin into fiat by using via local online wallet coins ph. Union bank release the news to adopt crypto currency using ATM it is very interesting for the additional choices for all crypto enthusiasm to make funds transfer.

[Ridwan Fauzi]

One good thing about Union Bank is they are doing the opposite of what the other Banks are not doing. BDO, one of the largest Bank in the Philippines is allegedly not allowing Cryptousers to open an account in their Bank. They ask first where the source of funds is coming and when they found out that it came from trading cryptocurencies, they will not allow you open an account.  I hope other Banks will follow what Union Bank is doing.

It is interesting to comply the development of the information about this bank union, actually I don't know much about bank union but I live in a country close to the Philippines. At least, this information can be used as a reference for other countries so that they can open their hands to cryptocurrency. For my perspective, the bank union's decision to accept and use cryptocurrency when other banks do not do that might be the reason that the use of cryptocurrency in the Philippines has started a lot. The union bank considers cryptocurrency as a tool that can be used as an advantage for them. When a country accepts cryptocurrency well then there will be one party that will continue to make it grow at least for them to get a adventage.

[marcbitcoins]

This shows and proved that not all banks are against Bitcoin and that they have different views regarding Bitcoin existence like here in the Philippines that banks are really supporting Bitcoin especially our Central bank. Hopefully that this would help Bitcoin price to become stable as many Filipino will now be attracted to join Bitcoin investments.

[Janation]

If majority of you guys are not aware, the bank has just open last year Union Bank Opens Blockchain Institute. So I don't know if this is just a marketing strategy on their side because it really looks that they wanted to be the first crypto friendly related bank in the Philippines.

I'm didn't know that there are blockchain institute in the country, so I wouldn't be really surprise if Philippines became one crypto hub specially with the exchanges, their crypto friendly attitude and of course the attitude of their banks.

This may be great but I don't think that is.

First off, I do love cryptocurrencues being accepted in our country and I love to use them as a payment method but the thing is that, it is not the whole Philippines that is accepting it. We live in a province, I know that it is obvious that we will not be able to use Bitcoin there but saying that the whole country accepts Bitcoin is a bit disappointing. There are a lot of people that is like me that can't really use Bitcoin in the real world unless we use a certain exchange, we can't really use our Bitcoins.

[yusupjatigumilar]

This is the beginning of the banking revolution in the Asian region, this shows that blockchain technology has begun to be looked at and developed by banks where it is a positive sign for the use of cryptocurrencies both as investors and traders. The use of cryptocurrency ATMs will make it easier to transact without limitation of distance and time.

[AAKODI]

Many governments try different things to develop there economy through experiments and what Philippines has done is very radical because this is the time some governments stand against crypto so there decision to allow cryptocurrnecies can be considered as a radical choice but It will be a bold step for Philippines banking industry and also it will give the first foot step to expand and develop cryptocurrencies locally to become them much closer to people with there day to day businesses and other transactions

[carliexoxo]

Here's a good article on How to use a Bitcoin ATM


Here's their video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6kbUpoAHcA

I'm Thinking they're based on the PH

[steampunkz]

Union Bank of the Philippines Launching Cryptocurrency ATM

One of the largest banks in the Philippines is reportedly launching a two-way cryptocurrency ATM that is in compliance with Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ specifications. In the Philippines, the central bank regulates cryptocurrencies “when used for delivery of financial services, particularly, for payments and remittances.”

https://news.bitcoin.com/union-bank-philippines-cryptocurrency-atm/

Another compelling moved that the Philippines is really working hard and getting closer to adopt bitcoin as one of the biggest bank in the country is launching a crypto ATM. Union Bank seems to be spearheading this, and as far as I can remember this bank is one of the first if not the first to integrate Paypal as well in the country. So let's see how it goes.

As far as I know, there are now some active BitcoinATM machines in part of Manila, especially in Makati city. But it's not that famous from cryptocurrency users. I hope union bank can distribute bitcoinATM nationwide in the P.H.

[kelz1]

It's a big deal because it's not from a private company but a regulated bank and the fact that it is a 2 way machine. Great that there is another crypto friendly country now