SAN MATEO, Calif. & MANILA, Philippines--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 7, 2025--
GoTyme Bank, the fastest-growing bank in the Philippines and a joint venture between the Gokongwei Group and Tyme Group, announced the launch of its cryptocurrency investment feature. This launch was made possible in partnership with Alpaca, a global leader in brokerage infrastructure APIs providing access to crypto, stocks, ETFs, options, and fixed income.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251207383870/en/
The demand for crypto continues to rise globally, with the Philippines ranking ninth in adoption and 20th in crypto wealth. Currently, about 10% of Filipinos use crypto, and this number is projected to reach 12.79 million users by 2026. This growth is driven by the demand for digital-first financial solutions among the country's roughly 76% unbanked and underbanked population. The Philippines’ crypto-friendly environment is further supported by the government’s positive stance on digital assets, a growing tech-literate population, and limited access to traditional financial services.
“Our goal is to become the most transformative bank in the Philippines—one that empowers every Filipino to unlock their financial potential. The launch of GoTyme Crypto is a major step toward that vision as we continue to deliver world-class financial solutions that combine security, simplicity, and innovation,” said Nate Clarke, President and CEO of GoTyme Bank. “By partnering with Alpaca, we’re bringing global expertise to local customers, ensuring they have the tools to confidently participate in the digital economy.”
“While many Filipinos look for ways to diversify savings and protect against local currency fluctuation, most crypto apps target experienced traders and feel intimidating for everyday users. That’s what GoTyme Bank aims to solve,” added An Phan, Portfolio Product Manager at TymeX, the product and technology arm of Tyme Group. “Our product focuses on simplicity and reliability, designed for people who want to buy crypto confidently without complicated technical analysis or managing multiple apps.”
Supported by Alpaca’s Broker API, GoTyme Bank customers can:
The streamlined integration, combined with a familiar interface and bank-level security, helps remove friction and makes investing approachable for everyone.
“We’re proud to support GoTyme Bank in making crypto trading simple and accessible for everyday users and capturing the growing convergence of traditional finance and digital assets. The Philippines is one of the earliest adopters of digital assets, and we’re excited that with Alpaca, GoTyme Bank is enabling millions of Filipinos to confidently build wealth and participate in the global digital economy,” says Yoshi Yokokawa, CEO of Alpaca.
About Alpaca
Alpaca is a US-headquartered, self-clearing broker-dealer and a global leader in brokerage infrastructure APIs providing access to stocks, ETFs, options, fixed income, and crypto. Alpaca delivers embeddable finance solutions for tokenization, fully paid securities lending, high-yield cash, 24/5 trading, Shariah-compliant investing and more. Today, Alpaca powers over 8 million brokerage accounts across hundreds of fintechs and institutions in 40+ countries with over $170M in funding. For more information, visit: alpaca.markets
About GoTyme Bank
GoTyme Bank, a regulated bank by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, is a collaboration between the Gokongwei Group and the multi-country digital banking group Tyme. Powered by the extensive ecosystem of the Gokongwei Group, customers can bank where they shop, eat and relax. Through its award-winning mobile app, kiosk, and debit card, the bank offers products and services built around security, simplicity, and beauty that open up new ways of saving, spending, investing and managing its customers’ money. Find out more at gotyme.com.ph.
GoTyme Bank, a BSP-licensed digital bank and virtual asset service provider (MSB000215), provides virtual asset services in the Philippines. Cryptocurrency assets are not insured by PDIC, or any government agency.
Cryptocurrency services are provided by Alpaca Crypto LLC, a FinCEN-registered MSB (NMLS #2160858) and subsidiary of AlpacaDB, Inc. Cryptocurrency assets are highly volatile and speculative, involving substantial risk of loss, and are not insured by the FDIC or any government agency. Customers should be aware of the various risks prior to engaging these services, including potential loss of principal, cybersecurity considerations, regulatory developments, and the evolving nature of digital asset technology. For additional information on the risks of cryptocurrency, please clickhere.
Securities brokerage services are provided by Alpaca Securities LLC ("Alpaca Securities"), memberFINRA/SIPC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AlpacaDB, Inc. Technology and services are offered by AlpacaDB, Inc.
AlpacaDB, Inc., the parent company of Alpaca Securities LLC and Alpaca Crypto LLC, provides services and technology, including the brokerage infrastructure API supporting Alpaca’s financial services.
This is not an offer, solicitation of an offer, or advice to buy or sell securities or cryptocurrencies or open a brokerage account or cryptocurrency account in any jurisdiction where Alpaca Securities or Alpaca Crypto, respectively, are not registered or licensed, as applicable.
Alpaca, GoTyme Group (GoTyme Bank), and Gokongwei Group are separate entities. Each is independent and not responsible for the obligations or liabilities of the others.
GoTyme Bank Launches Crypto Trading in the Philippines in Partnership with Alpaca
MILAN (AP) — The gala crowd at Milan's Teatro alla Scala cheered the season premiere of Dmitry Shostakovich's "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk '' with a 12-minute standing ovation Sunday, as the storied theater synonymous with the Italian repertoire opened with a Russian melodrama for the second time since Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The crowd of luminaries fully embraced stage director Vasily Barkhatov's bold telling of merchant wife Katerina Izmajilova's fall into a murderous love triangle against the backdrop of Stalin's Soviet Union, right up to the jarring final scene with a Soviet truck barreling into a wedding party, and two characters perishing in burst of flames.
U.S. soprano Sara Jakubiak was showered with carnations and cheers for her tireless portrayal of Katarina, the title character, over the 2 hour and 40 minute opera, and the audience cheered its appreciation for conductor Riccardo Chailly, making his last Dec. 7 gala premiere appearance as music director.
“No one ever expects this,'' Jakubiak said backstage of the enthusiastic reception. ”I am just so happy.''
While the 2022 gala season premier of “Boris Godunov” drew protests from the Ukraininan community for highlighting Russian culture in the wake of the invasion, the premiere of "Lady Macbeth'' inspired a flash mob demonstrating for peace.
Shostakovich's 1934 opera highlights the condition of women in Stalin’s Soviet Union, and was blacklisted just days after the communist leader saw a performance in 1936, the threshold year of his campaign of political repression known as the Great Purge.
A dozen activists from a liberal Italian party held up Ukrainian and European flags in a quiet demonstration removed from the La Scala hubub that aimed “to draw attention to the defense of liberty and European democracy, threatened today by (President Vladimir) Putin’s Russia, and to support the Ukrainian people.’’
Another, larger, demonstration of several dozen people in front of city hall called for freedom for the Palestinians and an end to colonialism, but was kept far from arriving dignitaries by a police cordon. Demonstrations against war and other forms of inequality have long countered the glitz of the gala season premiere that draws leading figures from culture, business and politics dressed in their finest frocks.
Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli was joined by the senator for life Liliana Segre, a Holocaust survivor, and Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala in the royal box. Italian pop stars Mahmoud and Achille Lauro were also among those in attendance.
Chailly began working with Barkhatov on the title about two years ago, following the success “Boris Godunov,'' which was attended by Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, both of whom separated Russia’s politicians from its culture.
But outside the Godunov premiere, Ukrainians protested against highlighting Russian culture during a war rooted in the denial of a unique Ukrainian culture.
Chailly called the staging of Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth" at La Scala for just the fourth time “a must.’’
“It is an opera that has long suffered, and needs to make up for lost time,’’ Chailly told a news conference last month.
La Scala’s new general manager, Fortunato Ortombina, defended the choices made by his predecessor to stage both Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth” and Modest Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov " at the theater whose history is tied to the Italian repertoire.
‘‘Music is fundamentally superior to any ideological conflict,’’ Ortombina said on the sidelines of the news conference. “Shostakovich, and Russian music more broadly, have an authority over the Russian people that exceeds Putin's own.’’
Jakubiak, 47, made her La Scala debut in the title role of Katerina, whose struggle against existential repression leads her to commit murder, landing her in a Siberian prison where she self-immolated to kill herself and her treacherous second husband's new lover — deviating from the original story's drowning. It’s the second time Jakubiak has sung the role, after performances in Barcelona last year, and she said Shostakovich's Katerina is full of challenges.
“That I’m a murderess, that I’m singing 47 high B flats in one night, you know, all these things,’’ Jakubiak said while sitting in the makeup chair ahead of the Dec. 4 preview performance to an audience of young people. “You go, ‘Oh my gosh, how will I do this?’ But you manage, with the right kind of work, the right team of people. Yes, we’re just going to go for the ride.”
Speaking to journalists recently, Chailly joked that he was “squeezing” Jakubiak like an orange. Jakubiak said she found common ground with the conductor known for his studious approach to the original score and composer’s intent.
“Whenever I prepare a role, it’s always the text and the music and the text and the rhythms,'' she said. “First, I do this process with, you know, a cup of coffee at my piano and then we add the other layers and then the notes. So I guess we’re actually somewhat similar in that regard.''
Jakubiak, best known for Strauss and Wagner, has a major debut coming in July when she sings her first Isolde in concert with Anthony Pappano and the London Symphony.
Barkhatov, who at 42 has a flourishing international career, said “Lady Macbeth” is a “very brave and exciting" choice for La Scala's season opening.
Barkhatov's stage direction sets the opera in a cosmopolitan Russian city in the 1950s, the end of Stalin’s regime, rather than a 19th-century rural village as written for the 1930s premier.
For Barkhatov, Stalin’s regime defines the background of the story and the mentality of the characters for a story he sees as a personal tragedy and not a political tale. Most of the action unfolds inside a dark restaurant appointed in period Art Deco detail, with a rotating balustrade creating a kitchen, a basement and an office where interrogations take place — all grim and dingy.
Despite the tragic arc, Barkhatov described the story as “a weird … breakthrough to happiness and freedom.’’
“Sadly, the statistics show that a lot of people die on their way to happiness and freedom,’’ he added.
Stage director Vasily Barkhatov sits during an interview with The Associated Press prior to the dressed rehearsal of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
A wig receives final touches ahead of the dress rehearsal of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
A wig receives final touches ahead of the dress rehearsal of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
External view of Teatro all Scala ahead of the dress rehearsal of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
Soprano Sara Jakubiak has her makeup done ahead of the dress rehearsal of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
The stage is prepared ahead of the dressed rehearsal of the Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District, by Dmitri Shostakovich, at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
