According to the findings of the study group, Binance has been operating their company in the Philippines for a significant amount of time without authorisation from the relevant authorities. Binance is dependent on “third-party enterprises employing Filipinos for its goods and client support services,” according to Terry Ridon, the convenor of Infrawatch PH. Ridon said that Binance does not have an office in Manila. He also noted the statement made by Carlos Dominguez, who served as the Philippines’ previous finance minister and who publicly said in June that neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas had any record of Binance (BSP).
“By forbidding unscrupulous online lending enterprises, the SEC has done the public a service, and it is much appreciated. Ridon said that the nation’s unregistered and unregulated bitcoin exchanges need to be subjected to the same treatment. Binance has been providing a number of cryptocurrency products despite the fact that it is not registered with the SEC. These offers include spot market trading, margin based speculation, derivatives (futures and options contracts), crypto loans, and peer-to-peer (P2P) trading.”
According to the requirements of the SEC, “These products cannot be traded, offered for sale, or disseminated in the Philippines without a prospectus that has been filed with the SEC and has been approved by the SEC. We believe these goods are securities.”
A proposal to ban Binance was shot down by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) of the Philippines earlier in this month. The DTI justified its decision by pointing to a lack of regulatory clarity from the BSP. Infrawatch Philippines was the first organization to register complaints against Binance with the DTI, asking an inquiry into the criminal marketing practices of the exchange. The research was published at a time when there has been a notable surge in the trading of cryptocurrencies in the Philippines.
On Paxful, the most popular peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange, the weekly trading volumes of Bitcoin (BTC) in Philippine peso achieved an all-time high in the month of July. In recent years, there has been a general growth in the country’s adoption of cryptocurrencies, and companies like PayMaya now provide tools for trading cryptocurrencies.