Strike, the leading Bitcoin Lightning Network-based digital payment platform, has announced the expansion of its “Send Globally” product to the Philippines. This will enable fast, secure, and low-cost money transfers between the US and the Philippines, which is one of the largest remittance markets in the world. The Philippines depends on more than $35 billion annually in money sent from abroad, with more $12 billion coming from the US alone.
Strike has partnered with Bag.ph to allow transfers from US dollars to Philippine pesos, which can be received at a bank or mobile money account in the Philippines.
Strike uses the Lightning Network to make digital payments faster, cheaper, and more accessible, particularly in countries with large numbers of unbanked people. With Send Globally, dollars are converted to bitcoin, sent via the Lightning Network to an external partner in the recipient’s country, then converted to the local currency and sent directly to the recipient’s bank or mobile money account. This eliminates the need for both sender and recipient to worry about bitcoin’s tax treatment, dollar volatility, or custody implications.
“Remittances are a broken system and Strike provides an incredibly rich experience for people to send money around the world in almost an instant,” said Jack Mallers, Strike’s founder and CEO. “We are excited to partner with Pouch.ph to promote financial inclusion and bring fast, low-cost cross-border payments to the Philippines through the Lightning Network. Our technology allows us to enhance the existing cross-border experience and include those that have previously been excluded by legacy payment rails.”
Bitcoin Magazine was lucky to interview Mallers about the development, which can be seen below:
Send Globally launched in December 2022 and began with transfers from the US to Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana. CoinCorner has also partnered with Pouch.ph to enable remittances for European customers.
With the integration of Pouch.ph and Strike, the cross-border payment experience has been revolutionized, further empowering people to easily send money to loved ones back home. Lightning will continue to expand into more markets with more partners to bring better payment services to communities around the world.
