Bank of the Philippines tightens crypto regulations: complete ban on privacy coins

In comparison, the Central Bank of the Philippines (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, BSP) issued new virtual asset supervision guidelines requiring all licensed virtual asset service providers (VASPs) to establish strict due diligence and asset review mechanisms before listing or trading any crypto assets to improve financial stability and consumer protection.

The new regulations also clearly prohibit virtual assets that enhance anonymity, that is, private coins, from being launched or traded on compliant trading platforms, which means that private cryptoassets, including Monero (Monero) and Zcash (Zcash), will be removed or banned from local compliance platforms.

Regulatory documents require trading platforms to continuously monitor listed assets and set standards that trigger delisting mechanisms, such as deterioration in liquidity, risk incidents on the project side, technical security breaches, insufficient information disclosure, or suspected fraud.

The policy continues the Philippines' trend of tightening crypto regulations over the past year. Previously, the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had established a licensing framework for crypto asset service providers, requiring local registration, raising capital thresholds and local data storage, and imposing access restrictions on many overseas trading platforms.

Currently, the Philippines has formed a dual regulatory system: the central bank is responsible for payment and transaction channels (VASPs), and the securities regulator is responsible for cryptographic assets involving securities attributes. The two sets of compliance frameworks need to be met separately. Analysts believe this move will further promote the centralization of local compliant exchanges and accelerate market migration to regulated platforms.

On May 26, Binance returned to the Philippine market in a regulatory compliance manner through a partnership with local Philippine company BlocksShoals. The partnership will take place within the framework of the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulatory sandbox, with Binance moving from being restricted due to regulatory issues to an officially authorized test operation phase.

This article is sponsored by GENG, Build Your Fortune on GENG (https://geng.one)