Coins.ph Says It's Still Licensed as BSP Reportedly Cracks the Whip 🪙

Coins.ph, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the Philippines with over 18 million customers, said its license from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas remains intact following reports that regulators are weighing punitive action over alleged transactions with restricted offshore gambling operators. The exchange posted approximately $52 million in 24-hour spot trading volume on Wednesday, according to CoinGecko, and is reported to control roughly 75%-80% of peso-to-stablecoin liquidity in the Philippines, the world's fourth-largest remittance recipient.

The reported regulatory scrutiny follows BSP restrictions placed earlier this month on incoming InstaPay and PESONet transfers involving DCPay Philippines, the entity that operates Coins.ph's peso e-wallet services. Local media outlet BitPinas reported that the restrictions were imposed under BSP Monetary Board Resolution No. 839. DCPay holds an electronic money issuer license, while Betur Inc. operates the exchange's crypto asset services under a separate virtual asset service provider license. The restrictions reportedly target DCPay's payment operations rather than Betur's crypto services.

"Coins.ph firmly denies any claim that it knowingly serves offshore gaming or gambling operators," the company said in an official statement shared with Cointelegraph on Wednesday. "Our users' funds are safe; we continue to operate as a BSP-licensed institution." Asked whether transactions involving offshore gambling operators had been processed through its platform, a Coins.ph spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the exchange does not accept or permit such operators and continuously screens customers and transactions in line with BSP requirements. The company did not directly confirm or deny whether such transactions had occurred.

The exchange said cash-in services and QRPh collections were temporarily unavailable, while crypto trading, cash-outs, bill payments and merchant QRPh payments remained accessible. QRPh payments are the central bank's national QR standard. Several high-profile compliance staff have departed the exchange this year, including chief compliance officer Lexi Herrera, head of anti-money laundering transaction monitoring Chris Beaño and money laundering reporting officer Irish Calagui.

In 2025, the central bank ordered supervised financial institutions to remove links providing access to gambling websites from their payment applications, though the BSP has not publicly linked that directive to the restrictions on the platform. A BSP representative said it would look into the inquiry but had not provided further comment at the time of publication. More than 10.8 million Filipinos live outside the country, according to the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, with remittance flows to the Philippines reaching approximately $43 billion a year.