The largest bank in the Philippines has launched its own cryptocurrency

• UnionBank has issued a stablecoin pegged to the Philippine peso.
• The bank has successfully performed first transactions with the stablecoin.

     
UnionBank, the largest bank in the Philippines, has become the country's first financial institution to launch its own cryptocurrency. Moreover, the financial institution has already completed its first cryptocurrnency transaction, The Philippine Star reports.

The cost of the stablecoin PHX issued by the bank is pegged to the Philippine peso, while the coin itself operates on the i2i platform that connects UnionBank with the rural banks.

“PHX is a stable store of value, medium of exchange and is a programmable token with self-executing logic. It enables transparent and automatic execution of payments,” UnionBank senior vice president and head of the fintech business group Arvie de Vera commented.

According to Arvie de Vera, the banks that had joined the platform successfully performed several transactions with PHX including purchase, buy-back and internal transfers.

While the technology behind the stablecoin is not disclosed, UnionBank plans the expansion outside the Philippines.

It is worth noting, that last year UnionBank launched a pilot blockchain project for processing retail payments in real time in partnership with Ethereum-backed startup ConsenSys.

Also, the US-based JPMorgan announced the development of its proprietary stablecoin pegged to USD. In June, JPMorgan said that it was ready to start testing it among corporate clients.