The Philippines Pushes Back Foreign Crypto Exchanges

The Philippines pushes back foreign crypto exchanges by publishing a warning which has a very discouraging tone and which states that people should do business with foreign or unregistered crypto exchanges.

The Philippines Pushes Back Foreign Crypto Exchanges

In the Philippines, the pressure on cryptocurrency is increasing rapidly. Following a slew of contentious steps by state authorities and local think tanks, the country’s central bank issued a warning to people, forbidding them from dealing with unregistered or overseas crypto exchanges.

The statement does not appear to be threatening on its own, but when combined with other developments, it turns a 112-million-person country into a volatile location for cryptocurrency.

The Warning

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) issued a warning to residents on Thursday, “strongly encouraging” them not to interact with unregistered or foreign-domiciled virtual asset service providers (VASPs).

The Bank noted that all transactions involving virtual assets are high-risk activities in and of themselves and that when dealing with overseas platforms, there is an added issue in implementing legal consequences and consumer protection. That leaves the public with 19 registered VASPs from which to operate.

The list is unlikely to grow in the next three years, because a BSP directive prohibits the issuance of new VASP licenses as of September 1. This is how the BSP sees the difficult balance between encouraging financial innovation and controlling risks.

Even Binance Is On The Line

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the matter involves Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, which is attempting to secure a national license and, if the BSP memorandum is taken seriously, has fewer than two weeks to do it.

Binance’s Asia-Pacific head, Leon Foong, stated that they had already completed the necessary paperwork to obtain the licenses but cannot disclose any other information since it may be secret.

The issue is that the Philippine Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) has already warned the public not to invest in Binance, echoing the thoughts of an Infrawatch PH think tank that had previously advocated for the exchange’s prohibition due to suspected unlawful marketing.

At the same time, the Philippines does not regard its relationship with the crypto business as especially stringent or restrictive. According to the BSP’s written response on Monday, there are a lot of benefits linked with crypto and blockchain.

It is enthusiastic to promote cryptocurrency education. The BSP, in particular, stated that it does not intend to impose any substantial limitations on crypto investments or trading at this time. The regulator seeks risk-based and proportional rules.

Nonetheless, the country remains a potentially appealing place for cryptocurrency. It is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, with over 11.6 million Filipinos owning digital assets, ranking it 10th in terms of adoption.

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