Philippine regulator accuses Binance of operating without registration

Binance is not registered as a company in the Philippines and does not hold the required licenses to operate. This is stated in a special notice from the local Securities and Exchange Commission.

The agency threatened employees of organisations involved in promoting or trading on the platform with imprisonment of up to 21 years and a fine of PHP 5 million (~$90,300).

According to the document, an entity like Binance must file for registration and disclose detailed information about the securities it offers before selling them to the public. The information includes the issue price, the nature of the assets, and other details.

Local investors, amid the U.S. SEC’s actions against Binance, did not rule out that similar requirements could be imposed by the local regulator.

“If the platform loses this case [against the agency], all of its operations in most countries, including the Philippines, would crumble like a house of cards, so if I were you I would trade on exchanges regulated by BSP, such as PDax and Coins.ph,” — a Reddit user commented.

Back in June 2022, former Binance chief Changpeng Zhao shared plans to obtain a license in the Philippines.

Earlier this week the company’s new chief executive, Richard Teng, promised to transform the crypto exchange, by implementing a traditional corporate structure and disclosures.

Against the backdrop of the clash with U.S. regulators, the platform’s market share had been shrinking for eight consecutive months. By the end of October it 51.2%, according to 0xScope.