Coins.ph Reportedly Faces Philippines Central Bank Action That Could Strip Its License

Coins.ph, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the Philippines with over 18M customers, is reportedly facing punitive action from financial regulators at Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), according to people with knowledge of the situation cited by CoinDesk. The reported infractions allegedly involve serving offshore gambling platforms that migrated to the exchange after the central bank clamped down on e-wallet gambling access a little over a year ago. One source said the violations are serious enough that the 12-year-old company could be stripped of its operating license. The platform handles about $50M in 24-hour spot trading volume and controls some 75%–80% of peso-to-stablecoin liquidity in the Philippines, where overseas workers repatriate some $43B a year mainly through banks and money transfer services. At the start of October 2026, the central bank reportedly imposed an open-ended restriction on deposits made to Coins.ph through its primary wallet entity, DCPay Philippines, without giving a reason. The regulatory scrutiny follows the 2026 departures of several compliance personnel, including chief compliance officer Lexi Herrera, head of anti-money laundering transaction monitoring Chris Beaño, and money laundering reporting officer Irish Calagui. Neither Coins.ph—owned by former Binance CFO Wei Zhou following an earlier $95M acquisition by Gojek in January 2019—nor the central bank responded to requests for comment.