The numbers of legalcryptocurrency exchanges are increasing in the Philippines. There are nearly 10 legally approvedcryptocurrency exchanges in the Philippines. Japan is another country with growing numbers of cryptocurrencies, andthe Philippines is currently catching up with them.

The Central Bank of Philippineshas approved 10 cryptocurrency exchanges so far. Apart from this, the Cagayan Economic ZoneAuthority has licensed 24 crypto exchanges so far.

The top financial regulator ofJapan recently registered two new cryptocurrency exchanges. They are thusimproving the numbers of the approved cryptocurrency exchanges in the countryto 19. More than 140 companies have expressed their interest in launchingcrypto exchanges in Japan.

The Union Bank of the Philippines(UBP) installed a Bitcoin ATM in their main branch. The bank ATM was announced to be operationalin the past month. The ATM is located inArk Makati, and it is stated that the ATM will be accessible only during theArk Branch hours.

The bank representative stated, “Whenthey sell their bitcoin, users will be able to withdraw the money they made inthe transaction from the ATM directly. You have to be a UBP account holder andhave a crypto wallet (like Coinsph), users who do not have a UBP account canopen one in the Ark where the ATM is located.”

The crypto exchanges also havethe facility to apply for offshore licenses from the government-owned CagayanEconomic Zone Authority (Ceza). The CEZAhas approved several crypto exchanges independently.

Raul Lambino, the CEO of CEZAwhen talking about the numbers of licenses they have issued so far stated that,“24 principal licenses and six regular licenses for cryptocurrency exchangeshave been issued as well as four licenses for 15 companies involved infinancial technology solutions.”

There are several restrictionsapplicable when it comes to obtaining the BSP license. The CEZA issues the Financial TechnologySolutions and Offshore Virtual Currency (Ftsovc) license. The license from CEZA permits the exchangesto “run the business in the Philippines but must only service users fromoutside the country.” A recentpublication stated, “This license allows the company to do crypto-to-cryptotransactions but does not allow the company to facilitate crypto-to-fiattransactions as that is a separate license from the Bangko Sentral ngPilipinas.”

With the progress of time andmass adoption of cryptocurrencies, only a dozen cryptocurrency exchanges wouldbe required overall. Regulatoryauthorities from across the world are working on building the framework ofregulations for cryptocurrencies operating in their respective nations.

Several scandals in the differentcryptocurrency exchanges have triggered the regulators of different countriesin improving the regulatory framework of exchanges.