{"id":69485,"date":"2022-11-02T17:56:34","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T15:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=69485"},"modified":"2025-09-07T20:18:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T17:18:12","slug":"philippines-unionbank-launches-bitcoin-trading-and-custody-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/philippines-unionbank-launches-bitcoin-trading-and-custody-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Philippines&#8217; UnionBank launches Bitcoin trading and custody services"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Philippines&#8217; largest bank, UnionBank, has announced a pilot launch of trading and custody services for Bitcoin and Ethereum. The initiative has been implemented in partnership with Swiss custodian Metaco.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udce2 Today we announce that <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/unionbankph?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@unionbankph<\/a> goes live on METACO Harmonize\u2122 to become the first universal bank in the PH to pilot <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BTC?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BTC<\/a> &amp; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ETH?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ETH<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/custody?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#custody<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/trading?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#trading<\/a> services for select retail customers.<br \/>To read the full press release:<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xYXdkaoygp\">https:\/\/t.co\/xYXdkaoygp<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/H69vZw0yW0\">pic.twitter.com\/H69vZw0yW0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 METACO (@metaco_sa) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/metaco_sa\/status\/1587713729734533121?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 2, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re proud to have become the first regulated bank in the country to offer customers the ability to exchange digital currency,\u201d said Henry Aguda, UnionBank\u2019s Chief Technology and Operations Officer.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It was first revealed in January 2022 <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/philippines-largest-bank-to-offer-crypto-trading-and-custody\">about the bank&#8217;s plans<\/a> to add such a capability. At the time, representatives said they saw a future in the new direction, and the services would also cover tokenized bonds.<\/p>\n<p>In 2021, UnionBank planned to launch a crypto custody service with Hong Kong-based company Hex Trust.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, the Philippine bank and Standard Chartered Bank <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/standard-chartered-and-unionbank-issue-blockchain-bonds-worth-187-million\">implemented<\/a> a pilot project for issuing blockchain bonds worth $187 million.<\/p>\n<p>In July 2022, the central bank governor Felipe Medalla <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/philippine-central-bank-governor-opposes-ban-on-cryptocurrencies\">spoke out against banning cryptocurrencies<\/a>. However, the regulator&#8217;s head noted the environmental harm of Bitcoin and the high volatility of digital assets.<\/p>\n<p>Two months later <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/philippine-central-bank-imposes-three-year-moratorium-on-crypto-firms-registrations\">the Central Bank imposed a three-month moratorium<\/a> on licensing providers of virtual asset services.<\/p>\n<p>Read ForkLog&#8217;s Bitcoin news on our <a href=\"https:\/\/telegram.me\/forklog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Telegram<\/a> \u2014 cryptocurrency news, rates and analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Philippines&#8217; largest bank UnionBank has announced a pilot launch of trading and custody services for Bitcoin and Ethereum. The initiative is being implemented in partnership with Swiss custodian Metaco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2156,435,2048],"class_list":["post-69485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-metaco","tag-philippines","tag-union-bank"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"62","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69485"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69487,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69485\/revisions\/69487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}