Celebrating 200% Growth in APAC Exchanges

In case you didn’t read our article about Wirex’s recent success, in the first half of 2020, we’ve already reached a milestone of 3 million customers and achieved profitability. But our success doesn’t stop there!

We’ve recently achieved over 200% growth in our monthly exchange volume in the APAC region, allowing our customers to seamlessly buy, hold, exchange and spend 8 cryptocurrencies and 12 traditional currencies using the Wirex app in the region.

We already have a substantial customer-based of 80,000 registered customers in the APAC region. Our data showed that the volume of exchanges between fiat and digital currencies was particularly high in Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia, countries in which Wirex enjoys a considerable user base. Not only this, but this trend was reflected by the fact that in May, we also recorded the highest volume of transactions in APAC on a single day since it launched in the region in 2019!

The unprecedented social, political and economic circumstances as a result of COVID-19, leads our CEO and co-founder, Pavel Matveev, to believe that Wirex’s recent growth represents a gradual shift towards a fully-digital economy. “Concerns about what the future may hold have led to more interest in alternative forms of payment. People are looking for easy and safe ways to use and manage their hard-earned money, and digital tokens is one of them.” Google trends in the APAC region also reflect this growing interest in cryptocurrency, as people seek to find out more information about the assets. “Current WHO advice to socially distance and close businesses around the world has also demonstrated the need for a cashless society. Our customers have recognised this by taking advantage of the low-cost, efficient and secure transactional environment that we offer on our platform”, explains Matveev.

Matveev believes that increased regulatory acceptance in the region has encouraged further interest in cryptocurrency. As part of our mission to adhere to local regulatory principles across our entire market, Wirex is working closely with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in order to secure a Payments Service Act licence, and has been granted a temporary exemption to operate without a licence in the meantime. The PSA licence will allow Wirex to continue offering their trusted services in a regulated environment, and we’ve written more about it here.

The higher volume of exchanges on the Wirex platform was also likely influenced by wider market speculation and fluctuations that have been taking place recently. Matveev commented that, “other reasons for the recent high volume of exchanges include anticipation of the recent bitcoin halving event, alignment with the traditional equity market, as well as MAS setting the Singdollar to zero appreciation”.

Sign up to Wirex today and see for yourself why we’re growing in APAC and beyond!