Binance, Exchanges

Is Binance Legal in the Philippines?

Binance is a digital asset exchange that facilitates trading of cryptocurrencies. The company is headquartered in Malta and has offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Tokyo.

Binance was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao, who is also the current CEO.

In April 2019, the Philippines’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a list of 15 unregistered cryptocurrency exchanges that included Binance. The SEC advised the public not to transact with these exchanges as they are not regulated by the commission.

NOTE: WARNING: Binance is not a licensed entity in the Philippines and is not regulated by the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission. Trading on this platform is not considered legal in the Philippines. Trading digital assets on Binance is done solely at your own risk.

However, Binance is not listed as an illegal entity in the Philippines. The country’s Central Bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), has issued a Circular recognizing cryptocurrency exchanges as remittance and transfer companies.

The BSP requires these exchanges to comply with anti-money laundering and countering-the-financing-of-terrorism lAWS.

As of this writing, there is no specific regulation for cryptocurrencies in the Philippines. However, the SEC is currently crafting regulations for initial coin offerings and digital asset exchanges.

Once these regulations are released, Binance will most likely be required to register with the SEC in order to operate legally in the Philippines.

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