The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) plans to ban online cryptocurrency exchange Binance in the Philippines, saying its service is an unregistered investment product.
Binance defines itself as a facility for trading financial instruments and offers investment products — including spot trading using leverage, futures contracts, option contracts, cryptocurrency savings accounts, cryptocurrency staking services, and a platform for initial coin offerings.
The SEC in an advisory said Binance is not authorized to sell or offer securities to the public in the Philippines, as provided for in the Securities Regulation Code (SRC).
“The SRC provides that entities seeking to engage in the business of buying or selling securities or as a broker dealer, or seeking to create or operate an exchange for the buying and selling of securities, must secure a secondary license with the SEC,” it said.
The SEC said Binance has been actively employing promotional campaigns on social media to attract Filipinos to engage in investment and trading activities using its platforms. An app version is also currently downloadable on Google Playstore and the Apple App Store.
“Based on the Commission’s database, the operator of the platform Binance is not registered as a corporation in the Philippines and operates without the necessary license and/or authority to sell or offer any form of securities,” the SEC said.
The SEC said anyone who acts as salesman, broker, dealer or agent, representative, promoter, recruiter, influencer, endorser, and enabler of Binance may be held criminally liable.
“In line with the issuance of the advisory, the SEC will be requesting assistance from the National Telecommunication Commission and the Department of Information and Communications Technology to block access to Binance in the Philippines. This will prohibit users from accessing the website and its applications while inside the country,” it said.
“The removal of access in the Philippines is expected to take effect within three months after the issuance of the advisory, in order to give Filipino investors who have holdings in Binance to close their positions and take out their investments,” the SEC added.
The SEC also said it has requested Google and Meta, the operator of Facebook, to prohibit online advertisements from Binance appearing to users in the Philippines.
The SEC has recently issued advisories against similar entities, such as OctaFX/Octa Trading and MiTrade, as it looks to address the rising number of online entities soliciting investments from the public without the necessary licenses.
