Binance Walks Back Into Manila via BlockShoals, Promises Not To Touch a Single Peso 🇵🇭

Binance can offer crypto trading access to users in the Philippines through its arrangement with BlockShoals Technologies, but neither company is authorized to handle peso transfers or perform activities regulated by the country's central bank, BlockShoals head of legal Marie Antonette Quiogue said. Quiogue told Cointelegraph on Friday at Philippine Blockchain Week 2026 that Binance's local operations fall under the Securities and Exchange Commission's crypto asset service provider, or CASP, framework, with BlockShoals acting as an intermediary introducing Philippine users to Binance's global trading platform.

The structure is part of Binance's effort to reestablish a presence in the Philippines after regulators moved to restrict access to the exchange in 2024. BlockShoals participates in the SEC's Strategic Sandbox, known as StratBox. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas told Cointelegraph that neither Binance nor BlockShoals is authorized to operate as a virtual asset service provider, or VASP. "Participation in the regulatory sandbox does not exempt an entity from complying with applicable laws, rules, and regulations, including any licensing requirements imposed by relevant regulators," the BSP said, adding that it was coordinating with the SEC on the matter.

Quiogue acknowledged that neither Binance nor BlockShoals had applied for a local VASP license, but argued that the absence of a VASP license does not prevent the companies from providing services under SEC jurisdiction. "Trading, the activity of trading, is clearly under the jurisdiction of the SEC," Quiogue said. "Binance and BlockShoals, we are not moving pesos, which is clearly under the jurisdiction of the BSP." She said BlockShoals and Binance would need to obtain authorization from any other relevant regulator if they introduced services outside the SEC's remit, stating: "If BlockShoals and Binance will be offering any product that is regulated by any other government agency, you have to get an authority from them."

Binance first drew regulatory scrutiny in the Philippines in November 2023, when the SEC warned the public that the platform was not authorized to sell or offer securities in the country because it had not obtained the necessary license and registration. In March 2024, the commission said it had asked the National Telecommunications Commission to block access to the Binance website and related webpages.