Philippines Legalizes Cryptocurrency Compaines In Its Economic Zone

The Philippine government is officially welcoming around a dozen cryptocurrency companies that will operate in a special tax-friendly economic zone that will be situated in close proximity to some neighboring countries.

A recent Reuters report has outlined that the Philippines will legalize the entry of 10 blockchain and cryptocurrency companies. All of them will operate in the zone known as the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) which is a government-controlled economic zone situated within an hour’s flight away from Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan.

The strategic location of the zone would allow many people active in the crypto world to operate out of their countries – and within a zone that offers tax benefits in order to help generate employment opportunities locally.

The chief of the CEZA Raul Lambino told Reuters that the Philippine government will also license (read: legalize) the cryptocurrency companies in the special zone. As Lambino added:

“We are about to license 10 platforms for cryptocurrency exchange. They are Japanese, Hong Kong, Malaysians, Koreans…They can go into cryptocurrency mining, initial coin offerings, or they can go into exchange.”

Obviously, there is a small caveat in the same situation. In this one, that is the exchange of fiat money into cryptocurrencies (or vice-versa) which should be conducted beyond Philippines’ borders in order to avoid infringement of the country laws.

Meanwhile, the central bank located in the Philippines’ mainland is currently reviewing all the applications of the operators that are vying to register and launch the cryptocurrency exchanges in the country as early as December this year

The Philippines is also one of the earliest nations that started publishing regulations for cryptocurrency exchanges – as early as the beginning of 2017.