Bitcoin fintech giant Strike rolled out its Lightning Network money transfer service Send Globally in the Philippines, a $35 billion remittance market.
Strike — a bitcoin payments company and wallet provider — has expanded its “Global Send” feature to the Philippines, allowing locals to receive Lightning-based transfers straight to their bank accounts. This is the second wave of Send Globally launches following the initial launch in Africa in December.
In a press release issued on Tuesday, Strike explained that its new feature will enable “fast, secure and inexpensive” money transfers between the Philippines and the United States. That means a lot for the southeastern island nation, whose $35 billion remittance market alone has $12 billion from the US.
Powering the service is Bitcoin’s Lightning Network – a layer-two scaling solution that enables instant peer-to-peer Bitcoin transfers for less than a penny. The Lightning Network’s capacity and adoption has increased dramatically over time and is now supported by over 16,000 nodes and 76,390 open channels.
Strike CEO Jack Mallers has often hailed the Lightning Network as a more efficient and less exploitative vehicle for sending value to the Global South than existing alternatives like Western Union.
Strike Hits Partnership With Pouch and Bitknob
Pouch.ph, a bitcoin company that supports peso payments through the Bitcoin Lightning Network, is powering Strike’s global shipping capabilities in the Philippines. With this, Americans sending dollars can transfer their funds via Lightning, convert them to pesos, and deposit them into a Philippine bank account or mobile money account.
The Bitcoin fintech giant had previously partnered with African bitcoin company Bitknob to bring Lightning transfers to Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana – the former already has a 35 percent acceptance rate for the cryptocurrency, according to a KuCoin study. As Strike focuses on international expansion, it prioritizes countries most in need of better remittance technology, like El Salvador and Argentina.
