Binance, a cryptocurrency trading platform already under fire from the regulators, said it is already securing its licenses from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to operate legally in the country.
Kenneth Stern, Binance Philippines general manager, told reporters that the company is in the process of acquiring a company that has both Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) and Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) licenses from the central bank.
He declined to disclose the name of the company that Binance is acquiring.
At the moment, there are 29 EMI license holders for banks and 42 EMI holders for nonbanks. The BSP has imposed a three-year moratorium on the issuance of new licenses.
“Anywhere in the world you can access our site through dot com. We are only operating on a peer to peer model. We are working with the central bank on our rollout (of local operations) once we have our licensing. We have to discuss with the BSP on how do we roll it out in the Philippines. Those talks are happening now,” Stern said on the sidelines of a seminar on blockchain forensics.
Binance offers support to government agencies for technical training, including cybersecurity.
“We are acquiring licenses through an existing company. The company that we are acquiring is already a license holder. We are working with the BSP on the acquisition. If ever, we will be the first case in the Philippines,” said Stern, who is based in the country.
“But we are working with the BSP on the (license) application process. The acquisition party is talking directly with the BSP.” Advocacy group Infrawatch Ph earlier said it has secured a statement from the Securities and Exchange Commission to caution the public against investing in Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
“The main issue is Binance’s lack of license and registration to operate in the country. For as long as or remains unregistered, it has no business receiving money from the public,” Terry L. Ridon, the group’s convenor, said in his earlier email.
“The SEC and the BSP should also prohibit local banks from transacting payments to Binance, to deter further money transfers to the platform,” he said. Binance offers products and services such as cryptocurrency exchange, peer-to-peer trading, spot and margin trading, cryptocurrency derivatives such as futures and options and cryptocurrency loans. It also wants to tap the billions of dollars sent back home by overseas Filipino workers.
The company has no office in the Philippines and only uses third-party companies that employ Filipinos for its technical and support services.
Stern said that Binance thinks that the Philippines can be the biggest cryptohub in the world in the next few years.
“Just look at the adoption rate in the Philippines, we have already surpassed credit card adoption in just a few years since it has been here. There is high potential in the Philippine market.”
Binance noted that around 78 percent of Filipinos remain unbanked. Crypto asset holders, estimated to be around 4.3 million, are now bound to surpass the number of credit card holders, it said.