Moneybees, a cryptocurrency over-the-counter (OTC) service, has opened three new outlets in the Philippines following a partnership with money changer service Tivoli Money Exchange.

Customers can cash out their trading gains from exchanges that don’t have peso cashouts in the Trinoma, Glorietta, and Okada branches of Tivoli Money Exchange. The service supports crypto users who are using Binance, Bitmex and other exchange wallets.

Moneybees is already available in four other Tivoli outlets and the company has outlined plans to open 100 outlets during 2021 to cater for ‘surging demand of OTC transactions among Filipino crypto currency users, traders and investors’.

According to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank of the Philippines, interest in virtual currencies to facilitate payment, remittances and other digital currency-related transactions is on the rise in the country. It recorded 59 billion worth of virtual currency transactions for the first half of 2020.

Paulo del Puerto, CEO of Moneybees, said: “With the rising demand for cryptocurrency trading and investment, we aim to facilitate two billion pesos worth of transaction volume in 2021. To serve more customers, we’re also looking at opening more outlets in malls around the Philippines and partner with major market players in the remittance and money exchange industry. We target to open 100 outlets by the end of the year.

“The partnership with Tivoli is a great step for us to fulfill our mission of making crypto more accessible in the Philippines by providing a familiar and secure way of buying and selling crypto via OTC. Having Tivoli as a partner is a great milestone, but we are only starting.”

Earlier this year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas expanded cryptocurrency regulation in the Philippines after seeing ‘accelerated growth’ in the use of crypto exchanges. The new guidelines amend the existing regulations on cryptocurrency exchanges that were issued in 2017 and are aligned with in the Financial Action Task Force.