Goodbye Philippines for Binance.

[Maslate]

With this news just came out today, it says that Binance will be saying good bye to the Philippine traders and investors since SEC issued this ;

The removal of access in the Philippines, the SEC said in a statement, will take effect within three months of the issuance of its advisory on Nov. 28 to give Filipino users time to pull out investments from the crypto exchange.

We have 3 months to pull out our assets so it won't be lose forever as this exchange will become inaccessible when the time lapse.

This would have a big impact on the Philippine crypto traders as this exchange is currently the most popular exchange among traders, and personally, I love their p2p feature where I could easily sell my bitcoin and expect payment from local digital currency.


Read more ....

https://www.reuters.com/technology/philippines-sec-block-access-worlds-largest-crypto-exchange-binance-2023-11-29/

[Oshosondy]

This is common to crypto exchanges and not only Binance. They only registered in developed nations like United States, Canada and EU. They do not registered in Africa countries and countries in Asia and they are providing crypto services in the countries they are not registered. Not registered means not paying tax and not following some laws. The government can not like that.

[Husires]

It is true that the decision may be bad, but it is an opportunity to search for and find alternatives, and there is enough time for that before the time comes for prices to rise, although I remember that another platform was approved by the regulatory system, or at least there will be a local and reputable alternative.

[malcovi2]

It is true that the decision may be bad, but it is an opportunity to search for and find alternatives, and there is enough time for that before the time comes for prices to rise, although I remember that another platform was approved by the regulatory system, or at least there will be a local and reputable alternative.

Local alternatives are only limited to the top coins and the spreads are terrible.

[yudi09]

The Philippine government's decision through the SEC to block Binance's access is good. They operate in a country to make a profit while they are not registered there. All countries do not want this situation to continue without generating profits through Binance operations. Binance is not registered, so Binance does not pay taxes.

Blocking access to Binance could benefit local exchanges there, although I don't know for sure there is a local exchange there.
Traders who are already familiar with Binance will feel lost because Binance is a good exchange. Even though Binance is already popular, if it is not mutually beneficial, why maintain it.

[freedomgo]

The Philippine government's decision through the SEC to block Binance's access is good. They operate in a country to make a profit while they are not registered there. All countries do not want this situation to continue without generating profits through Binance operations. Binance is not registered, so Binance does not pay taxes.

Blocking access to Binance could benefit local exchanges there, although I don't know for sure there is a local exchange there.
Traders who are already familiar with Binance will feel lost because Binance is a good exchange. Even though Binance is already popular, if it is not mutually beneficial, why maintain it.

Binance is wasting a significant revenue opportunity if they do not address this issue. Many Filipinos use Binance as their primary trading site, so it would be beneficial for traders if Binance were to comply with Philippine law. However, if Binance chooses to remain quiet, I believe there is still a solution to access the exchange by using a VPN service. Changing the IP address through a VPN would make it difficult for the ISP to block it.

Nevertheless, we should also be aware of the risks, as using a different IP from a different location might lead to problems with our Binance account. It's advisable to investigate first and determine the most viable option to continue using the trading service.

[Potato Chips]

Sounds like Philippine SEC finally remembered to research basic stuff such as licensing after all the recent binance headlines.

3 months is a good time frame but I do hope binance has already started sending out notices both off and on binance for philippine based users. Can anyone shed a light on this?

[electronicash]

The Philippine government's decision through the SEC to block Binance's access is good. They operate in a country to make a profit while they are not registered there. All countries do not want this situation to continue without generating profits through Binance operations. Binance is not registered, so Binance does not pay taxes.

Blocking access to Binance could benefit local exchanges there, although I don't know for sure there is a local exchange there.
Traders who are already familiar with Binance will feel lost because Binance is a good exchange. Even though Binance is already popular, if it is not mutually beneficial, why maintain it.

Binance is wasting a significant revenue opportunity if they do not address this issue. Many Filipinos use Binance as their primary trading site, so it would be beneficial for traders if Binance were to comply with Philippine law. However, if Binance chooses to remain quiet, I believe there is still a solution to access the exchange by using a VPN service. Changing the IP address through a VPN would make it difficult for the ISP to block it.

Nevertheless, we should also be aware of the risks, as using a different IP from a different location might lead to problems with our Binance account. It's advisable to investigate first and determine the most viable option to continue using the trading service.

nothing is ever considered non-negotiable though. in 3 months there will be a lot of things to talk about. the philippine government wouldn't provide such a length of time for binance to reach out and maybe discuss stuff. eventually, they can come up with something to agree on.

binance is one of the riches in crypto, most probably the biggest which $4B is nothing to them.

[logfiles]

Binance is wasting a significant revenue opportunity if they do not address this issue. Many Filipinos use Binance as their primary trading site, so it would be beneficial for traders if Binance were to comply with Philippine law. However, if Binance chooses to remain quiet, I believe there is still a solution to access the exchange by using a VPN service. Changing the IP address through a VPN would make it difficult for the ISP to block it.

This is less likely to happen in case they refuse to comply to what is required of them by Philippines SEC. What I know will happen is that on top of the Government blocking access, to avoid a legal battle, they will stop their services in the Philippines, give users time to withdraw their funds and close the accounts.

There is no way a Philippines Citizen will be able to trade through Binance even through VPN unless if they register as a Citizen of another country that is still friendly to Binance.

[Darker45]

Good riddance! This might prove beneficial to local exchanges and, hopefully, real P2P exchanges as well. I hope the volume on genuine P2P platforms such as Agoradesk would rise because of this.

Even though Binance is already popular, if it is not mutually beneficial, why maintain it.

Fair enough!

Sounds like Philippine SEC finally remembered to research basic stuff such as licensing after all the recent binance headlines.

3 months is a good time frame but I do hope binance has already started sending out notices both off and on binance for philippine based users. Can anyone shed a light on this?

The country's SEC is as slow as a worm, and probably clueless, too. During those times when Binance was kicked out from one country to another, from Europe to Asia, because of operating without license, the Philippines was not reacting. There were requests for investigations on the platform's illegal operations in the country, I don't know what happened to those. They probably just sat down on them.

If I'm not mistaken, emails pertaining to this aren't sent to users yet.

Binance is wasting a significant revenue opportunity if they do not address this issue. Many Filipinos use Binance as their primary trading site, so it would be beneficial for traders if Binance were to comply with Philippine law. However, if Binance chooses to remain quiet, I believe there is still a solution to access the exchange by using a VPN service. Changing the IP address through a VPN would make it difficult for the ISP to block it.

It seems Binance has this pattern of being too lax when it comes to registration and compliance.

Using Binance through VPN from a country where it is banned is suicide. Binance has KYC as a matter of requirement. It's pointless to appear as if you're trading from Brazil when all your personal details point to a specific location in the Philippines.

[joniboini]

I'm curious about how they plan to block access to Binance other than blocking domains, which can be bypassed easily if the user changes the DNS resolver. Would they track any Binance address and see if any of them is connected to local exchanges or something similar so that they can block the users or send them a notice?

Another choice they can make is to buy a local exchange instead of building a new one. At least that's what happens in my country. Kinda sad to see if that happens though, since they're being very aggressive and laying off a ton of people just to save money so they get more profit. CMIIW.

[freedomgo]

Binance is wasting a significant revenue opportunity if they do not address this issue. Many Filipinos use Binance as their primary trading site, so it would be beneficial for traders if Binance were to comply with Philippine law. However, if Binance chooses to remain quiet, I believe there is still a solution to access the exchange by using a VPN service. Changing the IP address through a VPN would make it difficult for the ISP to block it.

This is less likely to happen in case they refuse to comply to what is required of them by Philippines SEC. What I know will happen is that on top of the Government blocking access, to avoid a legal battle, they will stop their services in the Philippines, give users time to withdraw their funds and close the accounts.

There is no way a Philippines Citizen will be able to trade through Binance even through VPN unless if they register as a Citizen of another country that is still friendly to Binance.

That justfies though, thanks for elaborating it.

Well, I guess this is the end of Binance uers in the Philippines. The fact that SEC had already come up this decision, I'm assuming that there were already notice before that was sent to Binance since they have been accepting Filipino traders for awhile now, so this decision is probably the non reversable.

I just hope there will be a trading sites that is as good as Binance that existed in the Philippines, because I believe the reason why Filipinos loved to trade with Binance because the existing exchanges does not have a decent volume and the spreads aren't too competitive.

I'm curious about how they plan to block access to Binance other than blocking domains,

I guess they'll leave this to the NTC (National Telecommunications Commission), and the latter will mandate the ISPs in the country to comply with the SEC issuance.

[TheUltraElite]

PH is a country full of crypto users. I hope my fellow members there will extract their coins out of Binance quickly. They should move to local exchanges, P2P and DEXs. No international exchange is forever, this event only solidifies this fact as the truth.

Local exchanges actually have a good opportunity to catch these users who have lost their prefered exchange and willing to use a new one.

I would not suggest my fellow members to use a VPN to bypass the block when it comes in future. You will be putting yourself at risk.

[Husires]

Local alternatives are only limited to the top coins and the spreads are terrible.

You can use international platforms such as kuCoin, OKX, BYBIT and switch between Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies and use the option to withdraw in USDT and sell it against the local currency. The price differences will not be a problem but it will add more complications.

PH is a country full of crypto users. I hope my fellow members there will extract their coins out of Binance quickly. They should move to local exchanges, P2P and DEXs. No international exchange is forever, this event only solidifies this fact as the truth.

Is the ban related to all international exchanges? I thought it was related to Binance only.

[khaled0111]

Is the ban related to all international exchanges? I thought it was related to Binance only.

I believe banning binance is only the beginning since it seems it's the most popular exchange in the Philippines. Then the other smaller exchanges will follow. It's just a matter of time.
Since users there seem more interested in the p2p feature, then this could be a good opportunity to start using real decentralized p2p exchanges like bisq.

[Elpeor00]

That's an interesting opportunity for filipino traders to move to true p2p exchanges, they have a big community and any DEX out there can make great business targeting them

The only thing one may worry about is the level of knowledge about crypto among filipino binance users, the last years I have seen in several countries that binance's influence in the community, though good for adoption is horrible from the perspective of education about crypto. Several merchants who take crypto via binance are almost clueless about using it by themselves, I don't know if its the case in Phillipines

Local alternatives are only limited to the top coins and the spreads are terrible.

Only when you want to buy local fiat or physical goods that cannot be shipped easily should you limit yourself to local alternatives in crypto

[bhadz]

While they're able to get the sentiment of most Philippine users, they also need to settle it through having their license to operate. I thought that when CZ was coming back and forth here, he's able to do that but it seems that there's still a lot of things to be made. I am hoping that the new CEO will do something to do about this before the given deadline because they just need to get registered and be legal in operations here. Well, if they don't and they'll be gone out of our country through blocking access through their website, that's fine for me and not a problem but for sure other local users will find a way to access them through VPN.

[electronicash]

if only the telegram platform could be used to cash out to local currency, BTC users in our country may not haave to worry about binance getting blocked but obviously, Binance is one useful platform to turn BTC into PHP using the p2p.

but it will be a big opportunity for another exchange will open like GATE.io or the OKex to allow cashout to banks or to our e-wallets which is convenient. but 90% Binance can settle this as they always comply.

[KingsDen]

The Philippine government's decision through the SEC to block Binance's access is good. They operate in a country to make a profit while they are not registered there. All countries do not want this situation to continue without generating profits through Binance operations. Binance is not registered, so Binance does not pay taxes.

Lately, I have began to understand the level of smartness (maybe unnecessary), that CZ played to gain so much popularity for his Binance. How can you actively generate money from a particular country and you pay no tax, no registration and no way to give back to the society. It is fraudulent. Maybe, so many countries will stand up and take same measures and then Binance will suffer in the end.

Blocking access to Binance could benefit local exchanges there, although I don't know for sure there is a local exchange there.
Traders who are already familiar with Binance will feel lost because Binance is a good exchange. Even though Binance is already popular, if it is not mutually beneficial, why maintain it.

Even if there were no local exchanges in the country, with the exit of binance other exchanges will surface. The major issue the people will face is scam. This is because many scam exchanges will surface to steal people's money. But to any genuine local exchange, this is an opportunity to penetrate the country.

[YOSHIE]

With this news just came out today, it says that Binance will be saying good bye to the Philippine traders and investors since SEC issued this ;

Every day the news coming to the Binance exchange is getting more and more confusing and has created a high level of vigilance for that company, now something negative is happening again for Binance in the Philippines, This is really not good for Binance, who knows what will happen in the future for Binance.

The same thing also happens in Canada, Singapore, America and several other countries, this is really not good for some crypto users in general in those countries, I hope like India, Iraq, Afghanistan, Switzerland, Finland and other countries where Binance is available, whether illegally or legally.