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The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is squeezing Coins.ph hard. The Philippine central bank has put the country’s biggest crypto exchange under heightened scrutiny over alleged transactions tied to offshore gambling operators — and the fallout is already hitting millions of customers.
Why It Matters
The scrutiny of Coins.ph by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas highlights a growing regulatory focus on the intersection of cryptocurrency and gambling, which could lead to increased compliance costs and operational challenges for crypto exchanges operating in the region. As regulators tighten their grip on offshore gambling activities, this situation may set a precedent that affects the broader crypto market in the Philippines, potentially influencing user confidence and adoption rates amidst ongoing regulatory developments.
Allegations surfaced around October 13. The core question is whether Coins.ph processed payments for offshore gaming businesses that are restricted under Philippine law. No official BSP findings have confirmed gambling-related misconduct so far, but the regulator didn’t wait for a formal conclusion before acting. It directed Coins.ph to beef up internal controls and pull back on certain payment services — moves that have real consequences for everyday users trying to load pesos onto the platform.
It’s a messy situation, and it’s probably not over.
BSP Clamps Down on Peso Transactions
The restrictions land specifically on DCPay Philippines, the entity that runs the peso wallet side of Coins.ph. DCPay’s connections to InstaPay and PESONet — the two main rails for peso transfers in the country — have been curtailed. That means some payment methods for adding Philippine pesos to the platform are temporarily disabled. Outgoing transfers and bill payments can still go through, so it’s not a total freeze, but the limitations are significant for a platform that pitches itself as a one-stop financial app.
Coins.ph has been pretty open about what’s happening. The company said it’s strengthening internal controls under BSP guidance. What it hasn’t done is publicly link the restrictions to gambling-related activity — that connection comes from the allegations, not from any official BSP statement confirming it.
The structural split matters here. Coins.ph runs two separate licensed entities: DCPay Philippines handles electronic money, while Betur Inc. runs the crypto exchange under the same brand. Because the BSP’s restrictions target DCPay, the crypto trading operations have kept running. Customers can still buy and sell digital assets. The peso on-ramp is the problem, not the exchange itself.
Compliance Staff Out, Investor Names In
The scrutiny also lines up with personnel changes inside Coins.ph, including the departure of senior compliance staff. The company didn’t publicly connect those exits to the BSP situation. Maybe coincidence. Maybe not. No details were given.
What’s clear is that Coins.ph isn’t a small player anyone can afford to ignore. The platform reportedly has over 18 million registered users — a massive base for a single-country crypto app. Its ownership roster includes Joffre Capital and Wei Zhou, the former CFO of Binance. Since an acquisition in 2022, the platform has pushed to offer digital wallets, domestic payments, remittances, and crypto trading under one roof. That’s a lot of services to have in regulatory limbo.
Coins.ph has said customer funds remain safe under BSP requirements. That’s the line they’re holding publicly, and so far there’s no indication the regulator disagrees on that point.
Gambling Rules Tightened Across Philippine Finance
The broader context makes this more than a one-company story. An August 2025 BSP directive required financial institutions to cut links to gambling platforms from their services. That’s a sweeping rule, and it put every fintech and payment operator in the Philippines on notice. Coins.ph’s terms of service already prohibit using its platform for illegal gambling — but the question from regulators seems to be whether those prohibitions held in practice.
Anti-money laundering concerns are central to what the BSP is chasing here. Offshore gambling operations have long been flagged as high-risk channels for moving money, and Philippine regulators have been tightening the screws on that front for a while now. Coins.ph sits at an awkward intersection: a crypto exchange with a payments arm, operating in a country where the lines between digital finance and online gambling have gotten blurry fast.
The company says it’s cooperating with the BSP and working to resolve the control issues without touching its operating license. That’s the goal — keep the license, fix the controls, restore the services. No timeline has been given for when the restricted payment methods come back. Customers are waiting.
And the compliance staff departures haven’t been explained. That’s probably the detail that’ll get the most attention from anyone watching this closely — because in a regulatory fight, who’s running your compliance desk matters a lot.
Coins.ph has 18 million users and prominent backers. It can’t afford to lose this one quietly.
Frequently Asked Questions
What payment services has Coins.ph restricted during the BSP scrutiny?
DCPay Philippines, which manages Coins.ph’s peso wallet, has had its InstaPay and PESONet connections curtailed, temporarily disabling some methods for adding Philippine pesos to the platform.
Who owns Coins.ph and how large is its user base?
Coins.ph counts Joffre Capital and former Binance CFO Wei Zhou among its investors, and the platform reportedly serves more than 18 million registered users in the Philippines.
