Bitcoin ATM Makati: where to buy crypto in the CBD today

Reviewed by the Crypto Philippines Editorial TeamUpdated September 28, 2026 · 12 min read

Looking for a Bitcoin ATM in Makati? The honest answer is that you won’t find one you can rely on. Makati hosted the country’s first Bitcoin ATM in 2014 and its first two-way machine in 2015, but no operator has confirmed a working unit since. To buy crypto in Makati with cash today, walk into one of six licensed Moneybees counters, starting with Glorietta 2 or Alphaland Southgate.

This page is for people who live, work or party in Makati: the office crowd around Ayala Triangle and Salcedo, the residents of Guadalupe and Olympia, and the expats and tourists who end up in Poblacion on a Friday night holding USDT and needing pesos. We start with the machines, because that is what most people search for, then show you what actually works on the ground.

Bitcoin ATM Makati: how the country’s first machines came and went

Makati’s place in Philippine crypto history is not marketing. The first three crypto vending machines ever reported in the Philippines were all in, or linked to, this city. Here is the record as far as the sources allow, with the weak spots marked.

1. June 2014The first Bitcoin ATM in the Philippines

   Satoshi Citadel Industries and its exchange Bitmarket.ph ordered an open-source Skyhook machine, about US$999, according to Cointelegraph. It was one-way: cash in, Bitcoin out. BitPinas later placed it at GC Corporate Plaza, 150 Legaspi St., Legaspi Village, and said no KYC was needed.

2. May 2015Sunette Tower, Poblacion: the first two-way ATM

   A machine in the lobby of Sunette Tower on Durban Street let people buy and sell. Bitcoin Magazine credits BitCoiniacs with it; Coin ATM Radar lists it as a General Bytes unit. BitPinas described a 4% top-up fee and no ID check in 2017.

3. Feb–Apr 2019UnionBank’s two-way machine, location disputed

   UnionBank launched a Lamassu machine with a Coins.ph back end, open only to its account holders. CoinGeek and The Next Web placed it at The ARK on Ayala Avenue, Makati; Philstar and Fintech News Philippines said UnionBank Plaza in Ortigas. We could not settle it.

4. May 2020The last fee reading we can find

   An archived Coin ATM Radar page showed Sunette Tower at ₱100 + 10–11% to buy and ₱100 + 4–6% to sell. This is aggregator data, never confirmed by the operator.

5. Feb 2021Counters replace machines

   Moneybees opened staffed crypto counters at Tivoli Money Exchange outlets, including Glorietta, reaching seven locations at the time.

6. Apr 2024Pawnshops join in

   Moneybees and Tambunting announced crypto over the counter at 97 pawnshop branches, a Forbes Park branch among them, for BTC, ETH, LTC, USDT and BCH.

Two things stand out. First, every machine was small-scale and early: none survived long enough to be part of daily life. Second, the fees were steep. A 10% markup on ₱10,000 is ₱1,000, which is forty times the ₱25 you pay to cash in to Coins.ph at a pawnshop today. The early history rests on Cointelegraph’s 2014 report and BitPinas’s 2017 round-up of ATM locations, which has not been updated since.

Is there a working Bitcoin ATM in Makati right now?

We could not find one, and we looked. Coin ATM Radar, the directory most people check, blocked automated access when we researched this page, and its archived country pages show only four Philippine listings in May 2020 and twelve in November 2021, most of them staffed “tellers” rather than machines. An undated bitcoin.com article claimed the only two machines in the country were both in Makati, at Sunette Tower and the UnionBank ARK. Neither operator has said anything about them in 2024, 2025 or 2026, and we found no report of a new crypto ATM anywhere in the Philippines since 2019.

There is a structural reason for that silence. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said back in 2019 that crypto ATM operators must be registered virtual currency exchanges, and under today’s rules they would need a VASP licence. The BSP stopped accepting new VASP applications in September 2022 and in 2025 extended that freeze indefinitely. So any new machine in Ayala or Poblacion would have to be run by one of the few firms already on the BSP’s VASP list. None of them has announced one. For the national picture, see our guide to Bitcoin ATMs in the Philippines.

If someone on Facebook or Telegram offers to meet you “at the Makati Bitcoin ATM” or sells you access to a machine, treat it as a red flag. That is a face-to-face P2P deal in disguise, and our crypto scams guide explains how those go wrong.

Where to buy crypto in Makati with cash: the six counters

The practical replacement for the Bitcoin ATM in Makati is a person behind a counter. Moneybees Forex Corp. is a BSP-licensed VASP that places crypto desks inside money changers and pawnshops. Its official outlets page lists six in Makati, which is the densest cluster in Metro Manila outside Quezon City. We checked the page on 28 September 2026; its footer still reads ©2023, so call ahead before a long trip.

Coin ATM Radar has also listed a Tivoli counter at One Ayala, and press coverage of the Tambunting deal mentioned a Forbes Park branch. Neither appears on the Moneybees page, so we left them out of the list above.

How a Makati counter visit works

You tell the teller which coin you want and how many pesos you are spending, show a government ID, fill in the KYC form, and hand over cash. Moneybees sends the crypto straight to a wallet address you provide, so have your Coins.ph, Maya or self-custody receive address ready on your phone. The first level allows ₱200,000 a day with one ID. Proof of address raises it to ₱1,000,000, proof of income to ₱5,000,000, and above that you need proof of source of funds. Moneybees says there are “no additional fees”; its margin is inside the rate, and it does not publish the spread, so compare the quote with the live price in your app before you pay. Our guide to buying crypto with cash covers the other cash routes, from pawnshop cash-in to e-wallet top-ups.

Poblacion, Ayala Triangle or Guadalupe: which route fits you

Makati is not one market. The right way to buy depends on where you are and why.

The Ayala Triangle professional usually has a payroll account and a verified GCash. For you the counter is overkill. A bank transfer by InstaPay to Coins.ph or PDAX is free or close to it, and you can buy from your desk in Ayala Triangle or Salcedo during lunch. Go to Glorietta 2 only if you want to convert physical cash, such as a bonus paid in envelopes or pesos from a sold car.

The Poblacion crowd is different. Poblacion, around Durban, Kalayaan and P. Burgos, is where the old two-way ATM stood, and it is still where visiting foreigners, digital nomads and backpackers gather. Many arrive holding USDT and need pesos for rent or a night out. Your best move is not a stranger in a bar but Alphaland Southgate, which is open until 9 pm every day, or selling in a licensed app and withdrawing at a pawnshop. Foreigners should expect a passport and possibly more questions at the counter.

Guadalupe and Olympia residents are closest to the Tambunting branches. They keep office hours only, Monday to Friday until 5 pm, so plan a weekday visit. If that doesn’t work, cash in to GCash at any partner store and buy in the app; we compare that route in our GCash crypto guide.

Licensed crypto companies with a Makati address

Two of the firms on the BSP’s list of virtual asset service providers, as of 15 July 2026, give a Makati office address. WIBS PHP, Inc., which runs the DOPAY e-wallet, is at 23F Tower 6789 on Ayala Avenue. DOPAY says its wallet lets you buy and sell more than 20 cryptocurrencies; we could not verify its fees, so check the in-app table first. Direct Agent 5, trading as the SurgePay app, lists 2F Expocraft Building, 1008 Metropolitan Avenue, San Antonio. The BSP places it under “inactive/not operational” non-bank VASPs.

Neither company advertises its office as a walk-in trading desk, and we found nothing suggesting you can buy crypto over a counter at either address. They are registered offices, useful mostly for knowing a real, regulated company sits behind the app. The same goes for the bigger names: Coins.ph is in BGC, covered on our Taguig and BGC page, and PDAX and UnionBank are in Ortigas, covered on our Pasig and Ortigas page. To see how all of these compare, start with our list of the best crypto exchanges in the Philippines.

Crypto OTC in Makati for businesses and big tickets

Makati has the country’s densest concentration of company treasuries, family offices and trading firms, so questions about crypto OTC in Makati are common. The answer surprises people: no licensed OTC desk we found runs a trading room in the city. The two serious desks are a short ride away. Coins.ph TradeDesk takes trades from ₱1 million for high-net-worth clients and corporates at its top verification level, and settles in pesos or several foreign currencies through BDO, UnionBank, Sterling or Security Bank. PDAX Prime starts at ₱1 million for listed assets and ₱250,000 for OTC-only coins, settling T+1 by RTGS for trades before 4 pm.

If you need cash rather than a bank transfer, the Makati Moneybees counters are the licensed way to move up to ₱5 million a day, once you have passed the third verification level. For anything larger, or for recurring company purchases, read our guide to crypto OTC desks in the Philippines, which covers onboarding documents and how the quote works. Avoid anyone offering “OTC” in a Makati coffee shop through a flagged offshore exchange; our licensed vs blocked exchanges list shows who is off-limits.

How to sell Bitcoin in Makati and walk away with cash

Selling is where the old ATM was genuinely useful, and where people now get stuck. You have three clean options. At a Moneybees counter, you send your coins to the Moneybees wallet and receive pesos in cash on the spot or by bank transfer. In the Coins.ph app, you sell to pesos and either transfer to your bank by InstaPay for ₱5 or pick up cash at a remittance partner. And in GCash you can sell inside GCrypto, move the pesos to your wallet for free and withdraw with the GCash Mastercard at a BancNet ATM.

Pickup limits matter too. Cebuana Lhuillier caps a Coins.ph cash-out at ₱29,000 per transaction and M Lhuillier at ₱49,000, and you need two valid IDs at the counter. Our full guide to selling crypto for cash lists every partner and limit. If you are heading next to Manila’s old downtown, the Manila city guide covers the cash points there.

One last word on the global option. If what you really wanted from a Bitcoin ATM in Makati was speed, a card purchase is the modern equivalent. CEX.IO, operating since 2013 and registered with FinCEN in the US and the Bank of Spain, accepts Filipino Visa and Mastercard cards and lists more than 300 coins. It is not a BSP-licensed VASP and has no peso or GCash rails, so pair it with a local app for cashing out.