Digital assets can penetrate unbanked communities in a big way

Zipmex co-founder and CEO Marcus Lim, PDAX founder, and CEO Nichel Gaba, and Fusang CEO Henry Chong shared their views on the growing digital assets trends, especially in the context of Asean.

Marcus Lim, the CEO, and co-founder of Zipmex, Singapore and a speaker at the forum, said: “The world needs to pay attention because people that are adopting digital assets are mostly the millennial generation and as they say, the genie’s out of the bag, there’s no way to pull this back in. All regulators have to pay attention, and almost everyone is adopting it. So the key is how to make regulators and policymakers think about ensuring that they still have a governing system that is in line with their local currency and how do they deal with cryptocurrency, which could be in conflict with the national currency.”

“The second is around the applications of blockchain. For the past six months, we’ve moved towards the NFT market space and very quickly into the metaverse space. We’re seeing big companies like Facebook rebranding themselves into Metaverse. And with the pandemic and lockdown, we’ve seen a lot of people not contacting each other in the physical world and moving into the virtual world. So can we create a virtual world where everyone can co-exist?”

Another trend to keep a close eye on for a year or two is payments. “Southeast Asia has a huge population that’s unbanked, like in Indonesia where 60 percent of the entire population has no bank accounts. Thailand has a slightly smaller proportion but slightly larger when compared to the Western world. And if we look at the way digital assets operate, effectively you can send value to anyone seamlessly and almost at no cost. So if you look at the traditional world where banks have to provide infrastructure to the mass population in order for them to be banked, that’s the whole nature of digital access. It can cut through and make everything more efficient and cost-effective. And I think the short-term trend I’d like to see is how we start to include Southeast Asia and not through just the traditional trade ... but rather how crypto exchanges on all platforms play a part in inclusion.”

“The biggest thing that is holding us back is regulations. There’s a regulatory framework in place.”

Henry Chong, CEO of Fusang, Malaysia, Hong Kong, shared his views on the importance of security as one of the up-and-coming trends.

“The world of cryptocurrency and NFT is unbelievably exciting but 99 percent of assets, such as shares, funds, bonds, real estate, everything we see around us today, I think all these assets can, will, and should be tokenised as well. I think it is inevitable and I can’t imagine in the years to come that we will have these pieces of paper that represent all the assets that we own. I’m convinced that blockchain technology makes a lot of sense and we’re going to see traditional assets be tokenised and traded very similar to how cryptocurrencies are today. But the big difference is it becomes very important to be clear when you have a security token, what is the underlying asset? If the token represents shareholding in a company, what are the rights that I get, and what are the actual assets that I own. I think people can and will start looking at it through different lenses and what are the fundamental value drivers of securities like that.”

Nichel Gaba, the founder and CEO of PDAX, Philippines, said he had seen a new trend in the Philippines. While many people had lost their main income due to the pandemic, many had earned money through gaming that allowed them to earn tokens. Another popular trend he had witnessed was Cross-Border Remittances.

“Migrant workers are sending money into the country in a third currency, other than the peso, The use of Cross Border Remittances also grew in popularity and volume”

“In terms of investment, the Philippines equity market has been struggling to expand so many corporates and institutions are asking whether it would make more sense to raise capital via the token market.”

Nichel said cryptocurrency trading in the Philippines is around $3 million and $3.5 million, thanks to a strong cryptocurrency-friendly and savvy base.

When asked what advice he would give the younger generation interested in joining the digital world of crypto and NFTs, Gaba said: "Having been in the market throughout my career, I know how fast the weather can change. New investors should focus on developing real business skills," he said.

"The genie is out of the bottle. It is a magic that is evolving very quickly," he said.