Jiro Reyes, the dynamic CEO of Bitskwela, is leading a transformative movement in crypto and blockchain education across the Philippines. Fueled by a personal passion ignited during his college years and a realization of widespread misinformation about cryptocurrencies, he founded Bitskwela to make complex blockchain concepts accessible to all Filipinos.
Over the past years, Bitskwela has collaborated extensively with both public and private sector players, utilizing the private sector for Web3 onboarding and gaining public sector support for next-generation education.
Notably, the team’s work has been featured by CNN, Nasdaq, Esquire, and The Philippine Star, as it performs its mission to onboard 100 million Filipinos as a leading Web3 education platform in the country.
That said, UseTheBitcoin got the opportunity to interview Jiro Reyes, the Co-Founder and CEO of Bitskwela, during the recent Philippine Blockchain Week 2025 in Manila.
UTB: Can you tell us more about Bitskwela?
Jiro: At Bitskwela, we do crypto and blockchain education all across the Philippines, from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Basically, we work together with institutions, different enterprises, Local Government Units (LGUs), and universities, all in accordance with bringing education to the masses across the nation.
UTB: Bitskwela stands out for offering crypto education in multiple Filipino languages like Tagalog, Cebuano, and Ilocano, with plans to expand to others. What inspired this multilingual approach, and how has it influenced adoption rates or engagement in regions where English is not the primary language?
Jiro: To tell you the context of that, my dad works for the tourism board for some different LGUs. So, we go around the country a lot as a family, and from that experience alone, I realized that not all Filipinos are as well-versed in English as we are, and a lot of people in provinces prefer to talk in their mother tongue. In that sense, I thought of the mission of democratizing any financial topic, including crypto and Bitcoin. That is why we need different languages, not just English.
When I started, I made my first Bitcoin Tagalog course during my college years, around four to five years ago. And from there, we got great feedback. In terms of adoption, we were able to help people from other provinces and other walks of life understand Bitcoin on a fundamental level.
I’ve personally gotten a lot of DMs online, saying they were able to understand Bitcoin and blockchain. And again, we don’t charge a single cent for our courses. So, in that sense, I believe we were able to create an impact on a grassroots level when it comes to blockchain adoption nationwide.
UTB: How do you ensure the quality and cultural relevance of your educational content when translating complex blockchain concepts into local dialects?
Jiro: One is that we have a diverse team of quality checkers and content creators, to have a very long process of content checking before it is pushed out. Actually, with me is my COO, Vince, is one of our head researchers at Bitskwela, helping us in terms of making sure the content is correct and factual.
Of course, on the other end, we go around the Philippines a lot, so we make sure that our content is always informed by the experiences we gain on the ground, and that it reflects the cultural and relevant aspects of the Philippine market.
UTB: How does Bitskwela plan to position the Philippines as a leader in Southeast Asia’s blockchain ecosystem, and what lessons and experiences are you applying?
Jiro: In terms of plans, I would say it’s a two-front. First, there is help to keep momentum when it comes to retail adoption. As we know, the Philippines is currently ranked eighth in terms of cryptocurrency adoption. We have very high volumes overall, so with our education initiatives, including conferences and front-facing mass market education, we have a lot of things going on to help keep this alive in different provinces.
On our new side, we are also helping the developer ecosystems in the Philippines. We have a lot of IT talent right now, and according to data, we roughly have 190,000 developers in the Philippine market, but a lot of those developers do not code on the blockchain. Therefore, there is a huge opportunity cost being lost when it comes to IT development in the Philippines.
So, if you look at, for example, Singapore, India, and Vietnam, they have populations that are very adept when it comes to development, and you can see that they are really maximizing their chances in the blockchain space.
So that’s my vision: to activate this 190,000 population onto the developer ecosystem of Web3. And how are we doing that? Number one is that we are hosting numerous boot camps and code camps across the country. So again, in partnership with universities and LGUs, we have our offline workshops on teaching how to code smart contracts on the blockchain.
Second to that, we are also launching the Philippines’ first developer software, teaching Solidity, Rust, Move, and JavaScript, in different universities across the Philippines.
So, it is not just a workshop or a bootcamp, but an actual integration into the curricula of the universities in the Philippines right now.
UTB: You have shared that your personal journey into crypto began with a “Bitcoin rabbit hole.” What was the defining moment that led you to found Bitskwela, and how does that passion drive your leadership today?
Jiro: I guess the main driver would be the feedback I got from my family in a not-so-good way, because for context, I was at a Christmas dinner, and I was talking about Bitcoin and crypto during the year of 2020. The first reaction from my aunties and uncles is that it’s a scam. That made me realize that instead of being discouraged by that, I was inspired by the fact that there is a significant problem of misinformation surrounding Bitcoin and crypto in the Philippines. And in my family, there’s a lot of pushback as well. So, with that in mind, it pushed me further to expand its course operations and go for the mission to expand the education in the Philippines.
UTB: As a young CEO, how do you balance the pressures of leading a startup in a volatile industry with your commitment to educating a nation?
Jiro: Honestly, I don’t know as well [laughs]. But to be honest, I just deal with it every day. There’s no clear-cut way to solve how to do this sort of work on this level, and dealing again, like you said, in this very, very, volatile market.
I knew crypto was volatile, but managing an education business in crypto is even more volatile. So, I guess the way I cope with it is just really to exercise and daily meditation. Every time I wake up, I spend at least thirty minutes reflecting on my past performance and future performances as well. And also, proper eating habits are very important, because I’ve learned that what you eat is, of course, who you are, and if I continue eating junk food, that’s bad for my body, and I don’t want to reflect that on my performance.
UTB: Is there anything you want to share that I have not asked, but is important to cover in this interview?
Jiro: One thing to cover is regulations in the Philippines. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently released new guidelines for crypto marketers.
They called it the CASP (Crypto Asset Service Provider) rules, so this was already put into motion and will be in effect as early as next month.
Now, this one is sort of concerning in its own way because it’s an overreach in my personal opinion, in terms of regulating crypto players in the Philippines. I won’t go into deeper details because it’s very long, but just an open call to the viewers to take a look at it and voice out your opinion. And, you know, just work around it in a sense because it’s very questionable to an extent in some regards. But again, for a more extended interview on that as well.
For further information on Bitskwela and to stay updated on their announcements, please visit their official social media channels provided below:
👉 Website: https://www.bitskwela.com/
👉 Bitskwela’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bitskwela/
👉 Bitskwela’s Twitter/X: https://x.com/bitskwela
👉 Bitskwela’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bitskwela/
👉 Jiro Reyes’ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jiroreyess/
👉 Jiro Reyes’ Twitter/X: https://x.com/jirols_btc
👉 Jiro Reyes’ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jiroreyess/
