Licensed crypto exchanges in the Philippines: the BSP list and who got blocked

Reviewed by the Crypto Philippines Editorial TeamUpdated September 28, 2026 · 10 min read

A licensed crypto exchange in the Philippines is one that appears on the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas list of virtual asset service providers (VASPs). As of 15 July 2026 that list has nine entities: Coins.ph, Maya, Moneybees, PDAX, TopJuan, WIBS PHP (DOPAY), GoTyme Bank, UnionBank and Direct Agent 5 (SurgePay), the last marked inactive. Anything else is offshore and unlicensed.

This page is the register. It lists every BSP VASP with its legal name and the city of its registered office, the firms that dropped off the list, and every offshore exchange that the SEC has named or the NTC has blocked, with dates. For the wider picture of who regulates what, see our guide to Philippines crypto regulations.

The BSP VASP list: every licensed crypto exchange

The official source is a PDF the BSP publishes under its directories: the List of Virtual Asset Service Providers, "as of 15 July 2026", drawn from the BSP's TRISD database. We read it on 28 September 2026. The table below uses the legal names from that list, because that is the name you need to match when you check an app.

A note on SurgePay, because sources disagree. Some roundups count all nine as active licensees. The BSP's own PDF files Direct Agent 5 under inactive or not operational non-bank VASPs. We follow the BSP: eight active providers, one inactive. Its website could not be loaded when we tried, so we cannot say what service, if any, it offers today.

Most licensed providers sit in Metro Manila's business districts: Coins.ph and Moneybees in Taguig, PDAX and UnionBank in Ortigas, Pasig, DOPAY and SurgePay in Makati. That matters less than you might think: they serve the whole country through apps, and Moneybees is the one with walk-in counters.

What about GCash?

GCash is not on the list. Its crypto feature, GCrypto, is powered by PDAX, a licensed VASP, so the regulated party in a GCrypto trade is PDAX. Our GCash crypto guide explains limits and spreads. Maya is the reverse case: Maya Philippines holds its own VASP licence, covered in our Maya crypto guide.

Removed from the list

The list shrinks more often than it grows, because the BSP stopped accepting new applications on 1 September 2022 and made that freeze indefinite from 1 September 2025. In July 2026, Bloomsolutions (BloomX) and XenRemit (Xendit) were dropped, according to BitPinas; BloomX had stopped trading in August 2023. A March 2026 roster reported 12 entries including Zybi Tech (JuanCash), which is also absent from the July list. Rebittance was removed in 2023. Older revoked or cancelled registrations include Coinville, Philbit, I-Remit, Atomtrans, Telcoin, Novi Philippines and several others. If an app still shows a BSP registration from one of these names, it is out of date.

And the SEC? No public CASP register yet

Since 5 July 2025, the SEC’s CASP Rules (MC No. 4 and No. 5, s. 2025) require crypto-asset service providers to register with the SEC too. In February 2026 the BSP reminded banks and other supervised firms to deal only with exchanges holding both a BSP licence and SEC registration. The problem for you: we found no official public list of SEC-registered CASPs as of September 2026. Some websites call Coins.ph and PDAX "SEC-registered", but we could not confirm that from the SEC. The one publicly documented SEC authorisation is a sandbox one, BlockShoals, covered below.

Flagged and blocked crypto exchanges in the Philippines

This is the list people search for as "crypto exchange banned in the Philippines". Strictly, these platforms are not banned for you as a user; the platforms are barred from serving you without a licence, and the state enforces that with advisories, internet blocks and app-store removals.

The SEC says its lists are not exhaustive: a platform serving Filipinos without registration is in breach whether or not it has been named. The advisories themselves sit on the SEC advisories page; it blocks automated access, so our dates come from press reports of each advisory. A few details worth knowing:

An app in the store is not a licence. When we checked the Philippine iOS App Store in September 2026, Kraken Pro and Coinbase were still listed even though Kraken was named by the SEC and Coinbase is blocked by internet providers. Crypto.com was listed too; it has not been named in any SEC advisory we found, it is not on the BSP list, and whether it is among the 50 unnamed NTC blocks is unknown.

Bybit went further than most. It reportedly stopped new Philippine sign-ups in late 2025 before its Android app disappeared in March 2026. OKX's website is blocked and its app is absent from the Philippine App Store.

P2P books on these venues still show peso ads. That does not make them safe. Buying USDT from a stranger on a flagged exchange puts you in the zone where accounts get frozen for money muling; read our P2P crypto guide before you try it.

Is Binance legal in the Philippines? The BlockShoals sandbox

Binance is trying to come back through a local partner. BlockShoals Technologies Inc. received an in-principle approval from the SEC Commission En Banc on 21 November 2025 and a Notice to Proceed with Testing on 14 April 2026 as a Crypto Asset Intermediary in the SEC's Strategic Sandbox (StratBox, MC No. 9, s. 2024). It announced an AMLC certificate of registration in June 2026. The SEC said in August 2026 that sandbox entry does not guarantee approval or cure past violations, and that testing is technical integration only, with no public onboarding or trading. The BSP has said neither Binance nor BlockShoals holds a VASP licence.

Meanwhile, the Binance website started loading again: Globe restored access by May 2026 and PLDT by July 2026. No formal lifting of the NTC order has been published. So the honest answer is: Binance is still not licensed in the Philippines, and a working website is not a permit. We could not verify what happened at the end of the 90-day testing window in mid-September 2026.

Where global exchanges like CEX.IO fit

We partner with CEX.IO, so here is its status as plainly as we can put it. CEX.IO is a global exchange operating since 2013. It is registered with FinCEN in the United States as a money services business, holds US state money transmitter licences and is registered as a virtual asset provider with the Bank of Spain. It is not on the BSP VASP list and we found no SEC CASP registration. As of September 2026 it has not been named in any SEC advisory we could find, and it is not in any published NTC list; because the December 2025 list of 50 was never published, we cannot rule out that it is blocked on some networks. It accepts Visa and Mastercard from Filipino users but has no peso wallet, no GCash and no InstaPay. Use it, if at all, as a card on-ramp, and keep your peso cash-out on a licensed app.

How to verify a crypto app yourself in 3 steps

Screenshots of "BSP certificates" are easy to fake. This check takes five minutes and uses only official sources. If you want the background first, the BSP publishes plain-language FAQs on VASPs.

1. Open the BSP list from bsp.gov.ph

   Go to the BSP website and open the VASP list PDF under Lists and Directories. Note the “as of” date. Don’t use a copy someone sends you on Telegram or Facebook.

2. Match the legal company name

   Find the operator’s legal name in the app’s terms of service or website footer (Coins.ph is run by Betur Inc., DOPAY by WIBS PHP). If the app says “powered by”, check that partner, as with GCrypto and PDAX. No match means no licence.

3. Search SEC advisories and the app publisher

   Search the brand on the SEC advisories page and in the news. In the app store, check that the developer name matches the licensed company, because clone apps copy logos, not legal names.

What "not licensed" means for you

Using an unlicensed exchange is not itself a crime for an individual; the SEC confirmed in August 2025 that trading crypto is legal. The risk is practical, and it falls on you.

Two more consequences are easy to miss. First, your bank may refuse transfers to an unlicensed platform, because the BSP has told supervised institutions to deal only with licensed exchanges. Second, if a platform is blocked while you still have money on it, you may need to withdraw through a slow crypto transfer rather than straight to pesos. The fix is simple: keep only what you need offshore, and run your cash-in and cash-out to GCash or a bank through a licensed app. For a ranked comparison of the licensed options, see our list of the best crypto exchanges in the Philippines, and if someone pushes an unfamiliar platform on you, read our guide to crypto scams first.