The Philippine regulator tightens rules for listing crypto assets: privacy coins have been banned.
The Central Bank of the Philippines (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) has officially approved an updated regulation for the listing of digital assets for licensed Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs). This move marks another phase in tightening control over the cryptocurrency market in the country.
A key innovation is a direct ban on adding and supporting privacy-oriented assets. This refers to cryptocurrencies whose architecture makes transaction tracking difficult (e.g., Monero, Zcash, and similar projects). The regulator believes such coins create increased risks for the financial system due to the opacity of fund flows.
Six-factor verification before listing
Now, before including any asset in a listing, providers are required to conduct comprehensive due diligence across six key areas:
- Issuer data: Full identification of the team or organization behind the project.
- Market maturity: Assessment of time in existence, market capitalization, and trading volumes.
- Use cases: Real applicability of the asset, rather than speculative potential.
- Transparency and security: Smart contract audits, code openness, and protection mechanisms.
- Liquidity and reserves: Sufficiency of funds to support trading and meet obligations.
- Legal compliance: Adherence to local anti-money laundering legislation and sanctions regimes.
In addition to the initial verification, the regulator mandates that platforms conduct continuous monitoring of already listed assets. Companies must develop clear criteria in advance for suspending trading or fully delisting tokens if they cease to meet requirements.
Cryptalist analytical commentary: The Philippines is following a path already trodden by other Asian regulators, from Japan to Singapore. While this formally enhances investor safety, in practice, the new rules may reduce the diversity of available assets on local exchanges and force some retail traders into unregulated DeFi protocols. In the long term, victory will belong to those jurisdictions that can find a balance between user protection and preserving the innovative potential of the crypto industry.