How to buy bitcoins in the Philippines using Coins.ph

© Coins.ph

As explained in this article beginners guide and how to get started with Coins.ph, we've talked about the two types of wallets in Coins.ph, your Peso and Bitcoin Wallets. This is the only two things you must remember in order for you to start buying and selling Bitcoins here in the Philippines using Coins.ph (This is the easiest platform so far, although there are many platforms to choose from).

If you have already read that, I suppose you already have a basic idea about Coins.ph and how it works here in the Philippines so I will be explaining more about bitcoin in this post.

First thing first, we must differentiate Coins.ph and Bitcoin because there are so many people in the Philippines who interchangeably use both words where in fact they are both different from one another.

• Bitcoin (BTC) - Is a currency just like Philippine Peso (PhP), US Dollar, Chinese Yuan etc. The difference of BTC among the mentioned other currencies is that BTC is a "virtual currency" that is, it is not backed by a particular government unlike fiat currencies.
• Coins.ph - Aside from being a one-stop platform where you can pay bills, buy load and other basic services, in relation to Bitcoin, Coins.ph is like money changer for Bitcoin and PhP here in the Philippines. A platform where you can exchange your peso to btc or vice versa online.

Buying and selling Bitcoins (BTC) also called trading BTC is very simple in Coins.ph. Knowing that you get both Peso and BTC wallet when you created your Coins.ph account, if you ask how to buy bitcoins, the idea is just converting the amount from your Coins.ph Peso wallet to your BTC Wallet using the current Buy rate/Buy Price. The reverse, when you say you will sell your BTC, is just the conversion of your BTC amounts into your Coins.ph Peso wallet using the current Sell rate/Sell Price.

Buy Rate is always higher than the Sell Rate. Just the same when you exchange your money in currency exchange or when you buy stocks in stock market.

When you trade bitcoins just like other currency, you might want to keep track on the current Buy/Sell Price because these are the basis for you to determine if you profit or lost your money. Just remember to Buy Low and Sell High.

Consider the scenario below using my own account as of the moment:

• PhP/BTC Exchange Rate (Buy Price): PhP498,940
• PhP/BTC Exchange Rate (Sell Price): PhP484,350
• Peso Wallet Balance: PhP 5.50
• BTC Wallet Balance: 0.03478186 BTC 

Buying BTC in Coins.ph (Converting amount from Peso Wallet to BTC Wallet)

As you can see in the image above, if ever I will buy bitcoins in Coins.ph, I will just have to convert the amount in my Peso Wallet to BTC Wallet.

Since I only have 5.50 pesos in it, the BTC value I can buy with that amount is just 0.00001102 BTC which was computed by the PhP Amount to be converted divided by the current Buy Rate of 498,940 pesos.

That is 5.5 / 498,940 =  0.00001102. That will be the amount of BTC you own after converting your 5.5 pesos using the current conversion rate or exchange rate or simply called Buy Price.

Selling BTC in Coins.ph (Converting amount from BTC Wallet to Peso Wallet)

Now let's talk about selling your bitcoins. In the image above, using the same scenarios provided above, let's simulate selling the bitcoins I already possessed which is just about 0.03478186 BTC. Using the provided scenario, the current Sell Price of BTC in Coins.ph is 484,350 pesos per btc.

Therefore, if we sell those 0.03478186 BTC at this moment we would be getting 16,846.59 pesos which is derived by multiplying our BTC to the current Sell Price [ 0.03478186 x 484,350 = 16,846.59 ] .

As you have noticed, in selling our bitcoins, we must compute it using the Sell Price, while if we buy bitcoins, we must use the buy price, and that buy price is always higher than the selling price.

To summarize it, just remember that when you buy bitcoins you are converting your Peso Amount to BTC Amount and when you Sell Bitcoins you are converting your BTC Amount to Peso Amount, and always remember the following formula:

• Buy Bitcoins (get btc amount)— BTC Amount = ( Peso Amount / Current Buy Price)
• Sell Bitcoins (get peso amount)— Peso Amount = (BTC Amount x Current Sell Price)

As you have observed, we were just converting our funds from peso wallet to btc wallet and vice versa when talking about trading bitcoins in Coins.ph.

Easy Example of Buying and Selling Bitcoins

Suppose you have added money to your Peso Wallet in your newly created and verified Coins.ph account worth 5,000 today and realize that the current buy price of bitcoin is 5,000 pesos per btc and you decided to invest all of your 5,000 pesos to buy bitcoins.

How much BTC you will get now using the formula Peso Amount / Current Buy Price? You exactly get 1 BTC, right? Because 5,000 / 5,000 = 1.

Fast forward days or months or years later, the current sell price in Coins.ph is now 100,000 pesos and you decided to sell your one and only bitcoin this time. How much would you get? What must be the peso value of your 1 BTC?

Using the sell bitcoins formula above, you will exactly get 100,000 pesos because Current Sell Price x BTC Amount = your peso amount, that is 100,000 x 1 = 100,000 pesos.

A shining profit of 95,000 pesos which you can never get in any bank for a decade of time deposit using your 5,000 pesos capital.