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Blockchain use cases, such as crypto payments and stablecoins, will soon reach mainstream retail adoption, similar to opening a standard e-wallet. However, a significant bottleneck remains: only three or four major banks are currently catering to crypto exchanges in the Philippines.
This was the assessment made by Ryan Tongson, First Vice President and Head of Global Filipino Banking and Financial Technology at Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC), during his speaking segment at the Asian Banking & Finance and Insurance Asia Summit 2026 in Manila.
The Shift from Wholesale to Retail
Tongson acknowledged that the current utilization of blockchain in traditional banking is largely restricted to wholesale activities. These include liquidity management, real-time funding of wholesale transactions, and wholesale cross-border payments.
However, he expressed confidence that consumer-level adoption is inevitable as regulations and compliance standards become more established.
“Of course, in the future, there will come a time that stablecoins or crypto funding will be mainstream—meaning us as retail users. It will be just like opening an e-wallet.”
Ryan Tongson, Head of Global Filipino Banking and Financial Technology, RCBC
Note: The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is currently testing wholesale applications of this technology through its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) initiative, Project Agila. Earlier this year, the BSP confirmed plans for a second pilot to use wholesale CBDC as a settlement instrument for tokenized government bonds.
RCBC’s Move on Stablecoins
A key focus of Tongson’s address was the utility of stablecoins. He highlighted the asset’s ability to facilitate cross-border money movement 24/7, year-round, describing the underlying blockchain technology as “a global Google Sheet that no single entity controls, and past entries cannot be deleted.”
“It is like a global Google Sheet that no single entity controls, and past entries cannot be deleted.”
Ryan Tongson, Head of Global Filipino Banking and Financial Technology, RCBC
According to Tongson, RCBC is actively preparing to utilize stablecoins as a method for cross-border fund transfers.
This technological pivot aligns with the bank’s recent announcement to expand its remittance arm, RCBC Remittance (formerly RCBC Telemoney). The bank plans to increase its remittance network to over 80 partnerships across 25 countries within the next five years.
RCBC’s Blockchain History
As early as 2018, RCBC already showed its interest in utilizing blockchain for remittances.
- In that year, RCBC partnered with two Japanese banks to facilitate money transactions in both countries using the technology.
- A year after, the bank signed a letter with IBM, intending to launch its own stablecoins backed by the Philippine peso on the IBM World Wire, a blockchain-based global payments network designed to process transactions in real time.
‘Crypto-Friendly’ Banks
In 2025, RCBC was one of the local banks that was set to launch PHPX, a multi-bank peso stablecoin, on the Hedera DLT network. The stablecoin was said to enable real-time payments and greater control for overseas workers, such as paying bills or tuition directly.
As of writing, there are two banks in the Philippines that hold the Virtual Asset Service Provider license, which allows companies to offer digital asset products, such as cryptocurrencies.
- The first one is GoTyme Bank, a digital bank, that launched in late 2025 Go Crypto, an in-app spot crypto buy-and-sell trading feature.
- The second one is UnionBank, a traditional bank, that started its rollout in early 2025 a new Crypto Wallet within its UnionBank Online app to some of its users.
This article is published on BitPinas: Crypto Banking Bottleneck: Only 3–4 PH Banks Serve Crypto Exchanges, Says RCBC Exec Tongson
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