Philippine traders need help! We want an exchange with p2p feature like Binance.

[Botnake]

As some of you may know, the SEC has issued a memorandum regarding the ban of Binance in the Philippines. This will take effect after the 3-month period, which probably started on Nov. 28, 2023, as the date of their advisory. While we have local exchanges in the country, their strict policies make many traders uncomfortable using them. If Binance becomes inaccessible, it could impact our ability to enjoy trading.

In relation to this, I am requesting existing exchanges in the crypto space that have not registered in the Philippines for a license to consider adding a P2P feature that we could use. GCASH, a popular payment wallet in our country, could be integrated, providing significant assistance to us.


here's the advisory;

“The removal of access in the Philippines is expected to take effect within three months after the issuance of the advisory, in order to give Filipino investors who have holdings in Binance to close their positions and take out their investments,” the SEC said.

https://business.inquirer.net/434273/ph-to-ban-troubled-binance

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[JeromeTash]

What is Binance's positions regarding this? Have they issued a notice to Philippines users that they will stop them from using the platform? If not, then there is no need to worry. The trading will continue only that you will need to bypass the block by using VPNs.

As far as I recall, Nigeria Government banned crypto and tried so hard to make sure its citizens don't engage in crypto trading but instead Binance encouraged them to carry out p2p trading 

There are also alternatives like localcoinswap, Agoradesk, HodlHodl. Centralized exchange like Bybit, Huobi, Okx, Kucoin offer a service similar to that of Binance. Just check them out.

[PX-Z]

Just like what mentioned above, i don't actually mind the ban as i'm not a regular user of Binance, instead i stopped using them since the announcement made, and use Kucoin and P2P, although it has huge difference using Binance but it doesn't much. As long you choose a higher success trading rate of a merchant and you're good. Just do usual good practice in trading P2P — don't release yet if you didn't receive the actual amount either on your bank (if buying) and in Kucoin.

Here's comment^[1] from a someone's friend who work with Binance

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/phinvest/comments/186gtlb/comment/kb9xvju

[Botnake]

What is Binance's positions regarding this? Have they issued a notice to Philippines users that they will stop them from using the platform? If not, then there is no need to worry. The trading will continue only that you will need to bypass the block by using VPNs.

There was not message coming from Binance regarding their position on this. About using VPN to bypass the block, it has also been discuss in our local community here but it was discourage as it might result to compromise of account, you know, from Philippine IP then suddenly you change to other countries IP.

As far as I recall, Nigeria Government banned crypto and tried so hard to make sure its citizens don't engage in crypto trading but instead Binance encouraged them to carry out p2p trading 

But are they using VPN to bypass the block? If they are using and nothing bad happened to their account, then I see this as a good signal to try and consider it as one of the best solution.

There are also alternatives like localcoinswap, Agoradesk, HodlHodl. Centralized exchange like Bybit, Huobi, Okx, Kucoin offer a service similar to that of Binance. Just check them out.

Wow. I didn't know there are lots of services that have p2p features asa well. Although I'm familiar with some but I haven't been using them for a while since all my transactions now are on Binance. Thanks for this, I'll gonna check it.

Here's comment^[1] from a someone's friend who work with Binance

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/phinvest/comments/186gtlb/comment/kb9xvju

This sounds very positive bro. I hope this will happen. Thanks!

[JeromeTash]

There was not message coming from Binance regarding their position on this. About using VPN to bypass the block, it has also been discuss in our local community here but it was discourage as it might result to compromise of account, you know, from Philippine IP then suddenly you change to other countries IP.

Of course VPN usage is discouraged in some scenarios but imagine your Government decides to block Binance as a site. In order to access it, you would still have to use a good VPN service.

But are they using VPN to bypass the block? If they are using and nothing bad happened to their account, then I see this as a good signal to try and consider it as one of the best solution.

As far as I know. I saw some Nigerian users complaining that the Government went as far a blocking bank accounts of users who were engaged in crypto trading or if the source of funds was from crypto

Wow. I didn't know there are lots of services that have p2p features asa well. Although I'm familiar with some but I haven't been using them for a while since all my transactions now are on Binance. Thanks for this, I'll gonna check it.

Start checking them out and using them early enough to avoid difficulties in case using Binance becomes difficult.

[Darker45]

It's not as if Binance P2P is the only P2P platform available for Filipino citizens. It's as if you're running out of options simply because Binance is kicked out-- and rightly so-- for operating illegally in the country.

Yes, Binance is the most popular and probably the most used in the country, but it is utterly irresponsible for offering services to its citizens without a license. It has been operating for years, making much money from the people, but never did it secure a registration nor perhaps paid the right taxes.

How about exploring better options such as the ones mentioned by JeromeTash?

[mk4]

I doubt you can get a local exchange to implement P2P features knowing that what the authorities want is more tracking for potentially more taxes lol. Safe assumption na ginugusto nilang iblock ang Binance in the first place — kasi hirap silang itax-an.

[examplens]

There was not message coming from Binance regarding their position on this. About using VPN to bypass the block, it has also been discuss in our local community here but it was discourage as it might result to compromise of account, you know, from Philippine IP then suddenly you change to other countries IP.

Of course VPN usage is discouraged in some scenarios but imagine your Government decides to block Binance as a site. In order to access it, you would still have to use a good VPN service.

Mandatory KYC was introduced on Binance a long time ago, so they know very easily which users are from the Philippines. A VPN will certainly not help here, you only risk the possible freezing of funds. If it is illegal for them to offer services in that region, they certainly will not go against the law.

I believe that it is not a war against Binance only, but against crypto in general, and it is hard to expect that any CEX will be active there. Unless there is a very large number of users and a significant volume of trading coming from that region.
But every problem offers a solution on some side. Isn't this a great opportunity for some local exchanges to take over the market?

[Distinctin]

Isn't this a great opportunity for some local exchanges to take over the market?

People wouldn't be seeking another options if the local exchanges could satisfy its users. The problem with the local exchanges is that they are very strict with implementing the laws. For traders from the Philippines here, they knew that there's a lot of feedback of accounts being frozen due to whatever reasons, in short, it's not safe if you are trading huge money and you have transactions from unverified platforms, especially if your account is link with the gambling site, that's a big no no as it will trigger closure of account.

[Yamane_Keto]

US, India, Philippines and many countries that are starting to restricte access to Binance, so it is better for traders to stay away from leaving their money on that platform. Binance has ease and an excellent interface, but it can be replaced if there is enough demand for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, as As communities grow, the opportunity to find more alternatives becomes available.

What is Binance's positions regarding this? Have they issued a notice to Philippines users that they will stop them from using the platform? If not, then there is no need to worry. The trading will continue only that you will need to bypass the block by using VPNs.

Bypassing the ban using VPNs makes them easily able to close your account and then you cannot complain to anyone, you will be the weaker party.

[dkbit98]

In relation to this, I am requesting existing exchanges in the crypto space that have not registered in the Philippines for a license to consider adding a P2P feature that we could use. GCASH, a popular payment wallet in our country, could be integrated, providing significant assistance to us.

Instead of begging centralized exchanges to add payment you want why don't you just use p2p payment services that are available now?
AgoraDesk and LocalMonero are working fine and they are available worldwide without any verification, or you can use decentralized exchange Bisq.
There is another cool app called PeachBitcoin but it's only available in Europe (for now).

[JeromeTash]

Mandatory KYC was introduced on Binance a long time ago, so they know very easily which users are from the Philippines. A VPN will certainly not help here, you only risk the possible freezing of funds. If it is illegal for them to offer services in that region, they certainly will not go against the law.

Not if they are still allowing Philippines users on their platform

Once, they block Philippines traders. Their accounts will go on withdrawal mode only, just like what they did with users they identified from the US.

Bypassing the ban using VPNs makes them easily able to close your account and then you cannot complain to anyone, you will be the weaker party.

Most of the time, I access Binance while forgetting to turn off my VPN. The only blocks I get are just restricted trading for some few minutes or hours, with a notification telling me to turn off the VPN for better trading experience.

[robelneo]

Isn't this a great opportunity for some local exchanges to take over the market?

People wouldn't be seeking another options if the local exchanges could satisfy its users. The problem with the local exchanges is that they are very strict with implementing the laws. For traders from the Philippines here, they knew that there's a lot of feedback of accounts being frozen due to whatever reasons, in short, it's not safe if you are trading huge money and you have transactions from unverified platforms, especially if your account is link with the gambling site, that's a big no no as it will trigger closure of account.

My brother's account is still frozen with that local exchange even if you did not mention the name of that local exchange it's easy to figure out, we have a local thread about local exchange approved by our central bank, you can check it out here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5476735.20
I checked if you drop a post here and don't see your name so I figured out you may not know about it, and you can use their service while there is no P2P platform yet for us Philippine users.

So far no exchange's serving our local users who utilize a P2P feature but since there is a vacuum on this service let's see if there's one platform that will come out that will fill Binance's absence.

[Yamane_Keto]

Bypassing the ban using VPNs makes them easily able to close your account and then you cannot complain to anyone, you will be the weaker party.

Most of the time, I access Binance while forgetting to turn off my VPN. The only blocks I get are just restricted trading for some few minutes or hours, with a notification telling me to turn off the VPN for better trading experience.

But you completed KYC and your country is still one of the countries where Binance allows trading? If this is true, then there is no need to use a VPN, but if your country is blocked, then using a VPN will mean that you are trying to bypass TOS restrictions, and when they know this, they will close your account.

So far no exchange's serving our local users who utilize a P2P feature but since there is a vacuum on this service let's see if there's one platform that will come out that will fill Binance's absence.

I suggest to your local board to make the forum a place where you can do P2P trading and communicate with all trusted sellers or buyers. There are already many Philippines here so there is no need for you to wait for a P2P exchange to appear.

[JeromeTash]

But you completed KYC and your country is still one of the countries where Binance allows trading? If this is true, then there is no need to use a VPN, but if your country is blocked, then using a VPN will mean that you are trying to bypass TOS restrictions, and when they know this, they will close your account.

I think you are not getting my angle of argument

Yes, Binance allows people from my country to trade, but the Government is still anti crypto. They have even issued directives in the past to block any crypto related transactions or services

Now, if Binance does not come out to block users from my country then there is nothing to worry about even if Government tries to block access of Binance platform from my country. I will simply use a VPN to bypass the Government block.

- If Binance blocks Philippines traders from using their platform, use of VPN to bypass the block = Danger (A breach of TOS)
- If Philippines Government Geo-blocks its Citizens from accessing the website but Binance still accepts Philippines traders, use of VPN to bypass the block = Not that dangerous.

[PX-Z]

- If Philippines Government Geo-blocks its Citizens from accessing the website but Binance still accepts Philippines traders, use of VPN to bypass the block = Not that dangerous.

This is probably what will happen as what the reddit comment that i linked. Why? Because there are lot of countries already banned binance operating or accepting users from these countries (from the countries perspective), e.g. India, KSA, Malaysia, and other countries who bans cryptocurrency on the same reason, regulations. But you will see the currencies of these countries on their P2P platform because they still allow it.

[blockman]

Bypassing the ban using VPNs makes them easily able to close your account and then you cannot complain to anyone, you will be the weaker party.

I have asked actually the support on this one but it is unclear on what their stance is and I don't think that I'll be getting a clear answer about accessing them with a VPN. But most likely, it is what you've said that there is a big chance once the ban has happened then there will be a reason for them to ban us with such ways of accessing the platform.

Here's comment^[1] from a someone's friend who work with Binance

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/phinvest/comments/186gtlb/comment/kb9xvju

If this is for real, the system that we've got is really f*cked up. It is the government thing ever since and we can't have that hope that there's a balance process that's happening. And I guess everyone's taught about making the SEC force the users to use the local exchanges is for real, whoever is behind this could be the owners of the locals that we've got, cph, pdax, gcrypto, maya and who else I've missed? there are actually a lot of them but don't have the p2p feature or if I've missed one and they have, they have an ugly one and can't be compared to Binance's p2p.

[Potato Chips]

- If Philippines Government Geo-blocks its Citizens from accessing the website but Binance still accepts Philippines traders, use of VPN to bypass the block = Not that dangerous.

There's a good chance of this happening

In a local news article, it is said Philippine SEC as of now is pushing for an IP ban rather than a cease and desist order - has more legal power to make binance move.

Why not a cease-and-desist order (CDO) first? Moderator Ida Tiongson asked if the SEC can issue a cease-and-desist to an unregistered company.
Lee said that while it is possible “…compliance through the CDO, why would they bother? An attempt to enforce the advisory is through the NTC blocking.”

To me, Philippine SEC leniency indicates they really want binance to comply, here's another one: -- makes sense considering they'd get a slice of the pie.

Depending on how feedback is, we can actually extend that, but currently, we should feel lucky with the three months.”

Lastly, from another local news article, binance apparently hinted they would:

In an emailed statement, Binance said it is committed to align with Philippine laws.

“We acknowledge and respect the statement made by the Securities and Exchange Commission of the Philippines. At Binance, we are committed to aligning with applicable local regulations. Under our new leadership, we have taken proactive steps to address the SEC’s concerns,” Binance said. –

[Doan9269]

As some of you may know, the SEC has issued a memorandum regarding the ban of Binance in the Philippines. This will take effect after the 3-month period, which probably started on Nov. 28, 2023, as the date of their advisory. While we have local exchanges in the country, their strict policies make many traders uncomfortable using them. If Binance becomes inaccessible, it could impact our ability to enjoy trading.

In relation to this, I am requesting existing exchanges in the crypto space that have not registered in the Philippines for a license to consider adding a P2P feature that we could use. GCASH, a popular payment wallet in our country, could be integrated, providing significant assistance to us.


here's the advisory;

“The removal of access in the Philippines is expected to take effect within three months after the issuance of the advisory, in order to give Filipino investors who have holdings in Binance to close their positions and take out their investments,” the SEC said.

https://business.inquirer.net/434273/ph-to-ban-troubled-binance

By now, am sure that other exchanges my might have been scared of not knowing what next may come in from the Philippine government, regarding their license and operations in the country, other new potential exchanges may also be having this fear of what may come in next if they set in, they would rather want to see where Binance case will landed before knowing what to do, same way I will advise that we should make use of decentralized exchanges for now till things got sorted out.