The road to compliance is not easy! Following regulatory crackdowns in India and Nigeria, Binance faces a complete shutdown in the Philippines.

The latest announcement from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the Philippines indicates that the authorities are working with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to block the access of the country's citizens to the Binance cryptocurrency exchange website and application, citing concerns that the exchange poses a threat to the financial security of the people in the country. Source

The Philippines to Implement Blocking Measures Against Binance

The Philippines SEC revealed that local regulators and law enforcement agencies are collaborating to block Filipino citizens from accessing Binance through the website or app.

The announcement stated that due to Binance not having the required regulatory license within the country's regulatory scope to promote investment products, this action was taken:

The exchange continues to advertise through social media to attract Filipinos to use its platform for investment and trading; however, the platform has not applied for any licenses to trade securities and other investment products within our country.

Binance's financial instruments such as leverage and futures contracts have clearly defined themselves as an investment platform, posing a threat to the financial security of the country's people without permission.

Philippines SEC: Prior Warning Issued, Now Implementing Blocking Measures

The SEC also stated that the country issued a warning to all users as early as November last year and has been studying the method of fully blocking Binance:

Considering the scale of Binance's operations and user base, we have ensured that investors have had enough time to exit and switch to other regulated investment products and platforms.

It is reported that OctaFX and MiTrade exchanges mentioned earlier will also be blocked, while the list of all unregistered exchanges that were mentioned previously has not yet been released.

Philippines SEC: Binance Ban Effective in February, Unregistered Exchange List to be Released Gradually

Leading Cryptocurrency Continues to Face Regulatory Challenges Around the World

As one of the largest criminal penalties in U.S. history, a U.S. court approved Binance's plea agreement last month, requiring them to pay a hefty $4.3 billion fine to settle the case.

Looking back on the past few months, following litigation with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the U.S. Treasury Department last year, Binance has since attracted attention from regulatory authorities in various countries, including the Philippines, India, and Nigeria:

• The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU IND) of the Indian Finance Ministry warned Binance, Kraken, and 9 other offshore exchanges for illegal operations in December last year, leading to a complete shutdown the following month.
• Nigeria accused Binance of rate manipulation and tax arrears, seeking billions of dollars in compensation and detaining Binance executives for three weeks.
• The Russian exchange CommEx, which took over Binance's Russian operations in September last year, announced last week that it willcloseits services in the country in the coming weeks.

A rare piece of good news is that Binance Thailand, Gulf Binance, a joint venture with local company Gulf Innova, obtained a digital asset exchange and brokerage operation license from the Thai Ministry of Finance in January this year, immediately starting operations and offering trading pairs in Thai Baht, aiming to promote the country's digital economy and seamless integration with banks.