The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission has declared it illegal to offer unregistered exchanges to Filipinos.
After the height of the FTX crash, the Philippine government warned investors in the country not to use unlicensed crypto exchanges.
The Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a public advisory against using unregistered cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the country. In the warning, the SEC did not mention the FTX exchange directly, but said that the warning considers “the recent decline of major international cryptocurrency exchanges.”
Clarifying the country’s laws, the government agency reiterated that every company that wants to do business in the country is required to register with the SEC. They wrote:
“SEC is the registrar and supervisor of the Philippine corporate sector; it oversees 600,000 active companies and audits the financial statements (FS) of all registered companies.
According to the SEC, many exchanges target Filipino investors through online advertising and social media. The government office also highlighted that these changes are now “illegally” giving Filipinos access to their platforms and enabling the creation of online accounts. The SEC wrote that these exchanges “offer products and strategies that are very risky and sometimes fraudulent.”
On Aug 4, the SEC removed the Binance crypto exchange and warned local investors not to use the crypto trading system. According to the SEC, the exchange is not authorized to solicit investment. Despite this, the change remained positive and they would be able to enter the country.
On August 19, the Central Bank of the Philippines (BSP) issued a similar warning to local investors. The BSP has urged Filipino citizens to avoid using foreign infrastructure service providers that are not registered in the region and are based abroad. According to the central bank, it will be difficult to apply consumer protection measures and legal remedies when dealing with such companies.
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