Bitcoin Forum

Just sharing what's going on in the Philippines. Regulations for ICOs has been posted currently at the end train 3 (4 trains total) before it is accepted by the government. Both companies and associations have been very active working with the PH-SEC (yes and they are open for opinions). The initial draft (linked here) was first posted in August this year and it's moving a fast pace. It's estimated to be complete by November.

http://www.sec.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/MC-Rules-for-ICOs.pdf

Let me know what you think!

Philippines is very welcoming, and for sure they will adopt this system. I hear a lot of good news from here and I know more Filipinos will be educated enough to invest in cryptocurrency. Some of the exchanges already working to get license from the Philippine government. More countries in Asia will do the same thing and this can really help their economy grow in the future. Congrats for us for this one! :)

This one just came in 2 days ago. PDAX gets Virtual Currency Exchange license from BSP
https://medium.com/pdax/pdax-gets-virtual-currency-exchange-license-from-bsp-afb8a8dd5ff3

The Philippines central bank really very supportive to cryptocurrencies, because it  believes the innovative system that  bitcoin and the blockchain technology brings to the Philippines currency system, aside from that  the Philippines central bank, believes that blockchain technology is fast  and economical when use for remittances.

Looks like they'll heat things up in ASEAN. I was fully expecting Malaysia or even Indonesia to organise themselves ahead of the Philippines, even though mainstream adoption (at least from what I can tell) is actually very much embedded in urban Philippines. Of course, this is probably because of the initial push from the PEZAs, not least from the Cagayan EZ.


Is this going to be the first one outside of Cagayan with this specific licence, which if I recall will have over 10 exchange licenses issued already. All of these are sort of FDI, though, wonder when the first local exchange will come up. The central bank there definitely seems a lot quicker to decide, while those in Indonesia and Malaysia are playing cat and mouse, despite the change of leadership in the latter.

As far as PDAX, there's no clear date as of yet. But we still have our coins.ph trading platform to used as a "playing ground" for less experienced Filipino traders. Yes, it seems the BSP or Central Bank of the Philippines really wanted to push crypto/blockchain in the country ahead of many ASEAN nations, they wanted to be the first around the region to be the central hub. Indonesia and Malaysia are somewhat conservative though, perhaps undecided on still in the gray area, but sooner or later will they follow this trend among ASEAN neighbors so crypto is really a boom in the region.

Yeah, coins.ph has been a sturdy player, and Luno has been making its moves in all three countries, going so far as to have talks with both the central banks of Indonesia and Malaysia. But they've been strangely quiet this year after running user research in Indo and Msia, I can understand with the political changes there coinciding with the bear market, but with both also having formed informal "blockchain associations" I really thought they would move first. Adoption seemed to have started early there, with volumes at LBC peaking in 2016 and maintaining high levels in 2017. My personal feeling is that the FDI (including crypto related) was much higher in PH, and the existing close relationships with US but I thought Duterte in power meant lukewarm sentiments to those. Guess I was wrong!

This is what i like with PH government which they are open when it comes to crypto but just to expect there would really be regulations or laws which would needed to be followed.When it comes to exchange license its good to see another options but i would say nothing would beat Coins.ph.


There are already lots of money remittances on PH which this will really alarm on huge or gradual acceptance of Crypto into this country.

Duterte really knows how to play in this game, LOL, US, China and Russia is his ground. And I think those people he put on critical economic and financial positions (sort of pro-crypto) really saw the potential of bitcoin and blockchain technology that's why the country is very open and welcome. Specially the cross border payments, if Filipinos working abroad would transact everything in crypto, would be a boom for the Philippines.

I think the Philippines is doing the right thing because this will have an impact on the economy there and maybe Crypto Indonesia experts will be part of the development of Philippine cryptocurrency like a project developed in Singapore which can be said that 25% of the team Indonesian people

Since the best Export of the Philippines is their people (OFW), I can say that adopting cryptocurrency/blockchain technology is really a good idea so OFW's can now transfer money easily without going to any remittances. Philippines is a great place for cryptocurrency only if all people know how to invest, well its hard for the government to do that but this simple steps can become more big in the future.

The government is doing it right for the Filipinos as we all knows that scam ICOs are now rampant in the society in which some are using directly the Bitcoin platform just to steal the hard earned money of the people. Kudos to the government and hopefully this will be fully approve in no time.

Right, migrant workers is one factor why Philippines economy is somewhat surviving at this difficult time. Billions of US dollars every year are coming to the economy just from the OFW's alone. As far as investing though, I'm pretty sure that not only in the Philippines you will see noobs jumping on the crypto bandwagon in hope of getting rich. I also would like to see other Asian neighbors getting on-board on crypto/blockchain so that we can truly call Asia the leader in this emerging technology.

The Philippines is one of the most crypto-friendly countries not only in Asia but also in the whole world, and their SEC's Rules in ICOs is one example why. The Rules made by their SEC is only covering local start-ups and corporations or "corporations targeting Filipinos through an online platform", meaning if you are a foreign corporation and is promoting the ICO through other means besides an online platform then you are exempted from their rules and regulations given by them. Another good thing they do is they have an assessment for the ICO itself before it will be made available to the Philippine market which means if you see an ICO which is SEC approved you know that the chances of it being a fraud is low.

Maybe you don't understand the basics of economics, The Philippines' citizens is not the only factor for their economic growth, as the government is actually doing a bold move with regards to cryptocurrency, just recently the Philippines particularly the province of Cagayan created CEZA (https://www.bworldonline.com/ceza-to-limit-issuance-of-licenses-for-cryptocurrency-exchanges/) short for Cagayan Economic Zone Authority which is focused on bringing in foreign investors particularly in the industry of trading, there is a maximum of 25 licenses to be given and a minimum worth of investment of 25 million dollars to be handed of for the first two years. Simply this news tells us if these foreign companies need to earn their investment back they need to persuade Filipinos to invest in their businesses which will be another strategy for them.

The Philippines might be another Japan in the making when it comes to cryptocurrency because the government continued its crypto-friendly attitude. It has taken a positive stance on the crypto space recently, having established a blockchain and fintech hub in the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) in late April. Aiming to create an Asian “Silicon Valley,” the authorities have allowed some blockchain and crypto firms to operate in the zone. The Philippine SEC has also approved the draft rules for ICO and this action will pave the way for legalization of cryptocurrencies in this southeast asian nation.

My country is always open for innovation, as much as possible it tries to adopt the prevailing market into it's system that's why crypto currency though not yet legal in paper but still able to enter our economy and be use by a lot of people. Same thing I guess is happening for those ICOs maybe the government is putting a lot of control over it, but still the Philippines will continue to support it and let it become part of its growing economy.

Philippines is one of the country where unemployment rate is very high and even many parties came and struggling to rectify this problem and we knows that Filipinos are most constantly involving in the crypto related projects like ICO investments,trading and even bounty hunting many projects have emerged from those country as well so government thinks this is an opportunity to decrease the unemployment rate by regulating it in their country.But it will be big amaze if Filipinos are going to accept cryptos as the regular day to day currency like Japan.

Its good for a country like Philippines to engage crypto currency  because there are lots of benefits that would contribute to the development of business and entrepreneurs in the country side, to become independent financial stability, which also encourage people to venture investment through Internet, the security and exchange commision  doing their job to promulgate a guide line to protect the ICO's patrons.

Its not just the cryptocurrency that should be used in this country, blockchain will really be a useful tool for almost every government system. I'm from Philippines and I think Filipinos will agree about the corruption in the country. Blockchain technology might be the solution to solve issues like the election system and accounting system in the government now that FOI (freedom of information) was signed.

the Philippine government will issue virtual currency regulations with the aim of protecting investors from being safe from fraud, global pilstar also expects all ICO organizers to register with the SEC, they assume ICO with cryptocurrency anonymously increases the chances of fraud.

So its going to be a win-win situation if foreign body decided to go and registered in the Philippines and established their own ICO HQ there. Similar to what Singapore (another Asian country) is doing. That's why you will see many starts-up project are now base on Singapore. Perhaps we will see one day Philippines going on that direction as well. I'm looking forward to a day wherein Filipinos will have its own Projects, bolstering the economy and the crypto air in the country so that we can attract foreign entities to choose The Philippines. It will be really awesome to see that in the future.

What the Philippine government has done is good enough to protect investors from fraudsters. But we also cannot avoid fraudsters if we are careless.
This step is good and certainly, a positive response will be obtained from various circles.

ICO Regulations can also help to stop shitty ICO's which makes a bad image when it comes to cryptocurrency and most Scam investment that is advertise by greedy people. But, taxes for sure will be implemented into fund raising such as ICO to support the running project. However it is a good start to government of the republic of the Philippines to recognize crypto currency and its benefits. (:

Thanks for the providing SEC initial draft PDF link, I read the maximum pages and i understood in Philippines crypto user will be happy for making the very supporting ICO regulation. Total 37 pages and clearly details here and it will be working in scam project.

That is what it is intended to do, attracting foreign investors with licenses and agreements and at the same time being a friendly country to the cryptocurrency market is a perfect situation for them. It also gives them a pretty big space for movement and the good thing about this licenses is they are only limiting the competition for up 25 organizations meaning you will have 24 companies to watch and monitor compared to other countries where you are competing hundreds of them. I just hope that aside from the new foreign funds coming inside the country they will practice hiring local labor instead of hiring foreigners in order for the Philippines to benefit more.