Philippine regulator accuses Binance of illegal activities

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The Philippine Public Policy Center called on regulators to investigate the work of the world's largest crypto exchange after rejecting a request to ban the activities of Binance by the local Department of Commerce (DTI).

Center for Public Policy of the PhilippinesInfrawatch PH called on the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to take action against Binance as it has been operating without regulatory approval for several years.

Infrawatch PH Director Terry ReadonRidon said Binance does not have an office in Manila and only uses "third party companies that hire Filipinos for technical services and customer support." In the statement, Ridon cited former Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, who publicly challenged Binance that the company had no records with either the SEC or the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the central bank of the Philippines.

“The SEC has served the public well by prohibitingUnscrupulous online lending services. The commission should do the same with unregistered and unregulated cryptocurrency exchanges in the country,” Ridon said.

 

He added that Binance offers manytypes of crypto products, including spot trading, futures contracts, options, crypto loans and peer-to-peer (P2P) trading - despite not being registered with the SEC.

"We believe that these products aresecurities which, under the rules of the SEC, may not be sold, offered or distributed in the Philippines without a registration statement duly filed and approved by the SEC.”

In June, Binance CEO ChangpengChangpeng Zhao said that Binance hopes to soon obtain two licenses - an electronic money issuer (EMI) and a virtual asset service provider (VASP). Already in July, the Infrawatch PH Public Policy Center sent a letter to the Department of Trade and Industry of the Philippines with a request to initiate an investigation into illegal marketing campaigns of the Binance crypto exchange.