The Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission is blocking local access to the world's largest crypto exchange, Binance, the regulator said in a notice published Monday.

The regulator filed a formal request with the national telecommunications agency on March 12 to help in "blocking the website and other web pages used by Binance, which was found to have offered an investment and trading platform without the necessary license."

The move to block the site follows a warning from November 2023.

"The SEC has identified the aforementioned platform and concluded that the public’s continued access to these websites/apps poses a threat to the security of the funds of investing Filipinos,” SEC Chairperson Emilio B. Aquino said in the letter addressed to the telecommunications agency.

The regulator also criticized the platform for running promotional campaigns via social media to attract investors in the country without the regulatory approval to do so.

Regulations Binance Philippines

Sandali Handagama

Sandali Handagama is CoinDesk's deputy managing editor for policy and regulations, EMEA. She is an alumna of Columbia University's graduate school of journalism and has contributed to a variety of publications including The Guardian, Bloomberg, The Nation and Popular Science. Sandali doesn't own any crypto and she tweets as @iamsandali