Regulatory action against Coins.ph is putting the Philippines’ largest cryptocurrency exchange under pressure, with deposit restrictions reported at the start of October 2026 and allegations involving offshore gambling businesses. The exchange serves more than 18 million customers and denies knowingly handling business for those operators.
Key takeaways
Reported BSP restrictions affect deposits through DCPay Philippines.
Coins.ph accounts for about 75%-80% of Philippine peso-to-stablecoin liquidity.
Three senior compliance personnel left the exchange in 2026.
The exchange says customer funds are safe and it remains BSP-licensed.
According to CoinDesk , two people familiar with the situation said Coins.ph faces punitive action from the country’s central bank. One said the alleged breaches were serious enough to warrant removing its operating license. The exchange responded in an emailed statement denying the allegations and asserting compliance with regulatory requirements.
Regulatory action against Coins.ph targets deposits
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reportedly restricted deposits made through DCPay Philippines , the exchange’s main wallet firm, at the beginning of October. People familiar with the process described the restrictions to the report.
The alleged infractions concern services provided to offshore gambling businesses . One person cited in the report said losing its license would cause “an earthquake” in the Philippine crypto ecosystem, pointing to the stakes surrounding the 12-year-old exchange.
The action follows an earlier central bank intervention. A little over a year before the report, BSP required institutions it supervises to remove in-app access to gambling sites from e-wallet applications.
People cited in the report said several gambling entities subsequently moved to Coins.ph. A third person familiar with central bank regulatory processes said the move also gave those businesses access to cryptocurrency and stablecoins for payments to offshore partners.
A dominant exchange faces compliance departures
Coins.ph controls roughly 75%-80% of peso-to-stablecoin liquidity in the Philippines and records about $50 million in 24-hour spot trading volume , the report said. Those figures place the reported regulatory action against Coins.ph alongside a substantial share of the country’s crypto conversion activity.
The Philippines is the world’s fourth-largest remittance recipient. The Commission on Filipinos Overseas puts the number of Filipinos living abroad at more than 10.8 million . Most use banks and money-transfer services to send earnings home, with annual remittances totaling about $43 billion , according to the report.
The deposit restrictions followed departures from the exchange’s compliance team during 2026. Those who left included chief compliance officer Lexi Herrera, Chris Beaño, who headed anti-money laundering transaction monitoring, and money laundering reporting officer Irish Calagui.
One of the country’s earliest crypto wallets and exchanges, Coins.ph later expanded into broader financial services. Indonesian technology company Gojek purchased it for $95 million in January 2019 . It was subsequently sold to Wei Zhou, previously Binance ’s chief financial officer.
Coins.ph denies knowingly serving offshore gambling operators
Coins.ph denies knowingly serving offshore gaming or gambling businesses and says it meets the requirements of BSP, AMLC and other regulatory authorities. Its response addressed both the offshore-gaming allegations and its engagement with the central bank.
“Coins.ph firmly denies any claim that it knowingly serves offshore gaming or gambling operators,” the exchange said in its emailed statement. It also described full compliance as central to its operations.
The exchange said it expects to restore affected services fully soon. It stated that users’ funds are safe and that it continues operating as a BSP-licensed institution.
Article produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the editorial team.
