The Philippines has more overseas workers than nearly any country in the world, and remittances reached an all-time high of $25.1 billion in 2013. But the cost of sending money home to family has historically been high. That is changing, thanks to the Philippines Bitcoin exchange and remittance service Coins.ph. The company has a new service that allows recipients to instantly withdraw money from a bank ATM.
The company is releasing a mobile app that allows their customers to deposit funds anywhere in the world through a Bitcoin ATM and send it to someone in the Philippines. They are also able to deposit from a Bitcoin balance being held in a Coins.ph online wallet.
Coin.ph has said that this might be the first service of its type, but this is not quite accurate. Wall of Coins, for instance, allows users to deposit funds that recipients can withdraw from hundreds of bank ATMs in the United States and Canada, and another company is planning to offer the same service in Mexico, set to be launched in February of 2015. There is also a local competitor, Rebit.ph, that is trying to open Bitcoin services to residents.
