By Chino S. Leyco Cryptocurrency giant Huaren Capital of China plans to launch a peso-denominated digital currency in the Philippines next year catering to Chinese nationals as well as overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Jeff Wang, Huaren Capital president disclosed that they are currently in talks with some Philippine banks as well as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for the planned “digital peso,” which offers cheaper money remittance fees for OFWs and foreign nationals. Wang, whom many considers as the “father of bitcoin in China,” further explained that with the pace of their negations with banks and the regulator, Huaren Capital may introduce digital peso within the first half of next year. “I believe the technology is growing very fast and very rapidly in the Philippines and e-commerce is growing and will be growing even faster with this technology. We hope that this will bring the Philippines to the forefront of the e-commerce around the world,” Wang said. “We understand in the Philippines, many Filipino citizens don’t have a bank account, and when they transfer funds from one country to another or from one place to another, there’s always a high remittance fee incurred, so we are working toward reducing that kind of cost,” he added. The Huaren Capital official also said that Filipinos or non-Filipinos would all benefit from their service as it offers cheaper cost for transmission of funds from abroad. The pilot project will be located within the Cagayan Special Economic Zone being operated by the state-run Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (Ceza), Wang said. He added he was bullish about the Philippine market given that the country was among the fastest growing Asean economies, describing it as “a very open and dynamic economy.”