CryptoPH Weekly News Recap: June 30 - July 06, 2025

🌟 Editor's Note

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Philifintech Innovation Office Head Atty. Paolo Ong had a sit down with our friends over at Museigen, a media, education, and events community platform where he clarified many of the provisions of the Crypto Asset Service Provider Rules. While it was a very fruitful discussion, some members of the community still feel that important details remain unclear.

💡 In case you don’t know: The SEC Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) rules should already be in effect right now.

Let’s finally dive in.

🧠 Top Story This Week

💸 SEC Clarifies CASP Rules to Crypto Community: Here’s What to Know

We wrote this article last week to recap what Atty. Paolo Ong mentioned during the webcast (which you can view in the article or in here), but here’s a more concise summary for the subscribers of this newsletter:

1. CASP Registration and Promotion Rules

   • Promoting crypto services (CASPs) requires registration as a corporation. Sole proprietorship is not allowed, but One Person Corporations (OPCs) are permitted.

   • Marketers must ensure the platform is CASP-registered.

   • Educational content is allowed in good faith without promotional intent, but it’s assessed case-by-case.

   • Compensation is allowed if deemed “reasonable”; giveaways like merch may be okay, but luxury incentives could raise issues.

2. Financial Advice Guidelines

   • Giving financial advice may require registration as a financial advisor.

   • If you act on behalf of a registered CASP, separate registration isn’t required.

   • SEC is still drafting the full framework for financial advisor registration.

   • Educators who don’t promote platforms or charge fees are generally safe under current rules.

3. DeFi, Staking, and Airdrops

   • Truly decentralized platforms (without intermediaries) may fall outside CASP rules, but proof of decentralization is essential.

   • Staking via decentralized consensus mechanisms is generally exempt, but staking services offered by CASPs need a license.

   • Airdrops are a gray area: if tokens have no value and are given as tech promotion, they may not be regulated, but once tradable, they’re assessed case-by-case.

4. Events and Community Activities

   • Hackathons and educational events are allowed if there’s no fundraising involved.

   • Token rewards or prizes are acceptable, as long as they’re not used to raise capital.

5. Games and NFTs

   • Indie games do not need ₱100M capital to offer NFTs.

   • If NFTs are only used as in-game assets, no problem.

   • NFTs sold outside the game to raise funds could be seen as securities -registration required.

6. Other Regulatory Clarifications

   • Crypto spot trading is under BSP’s oversight.

   • Forex margin trading, CFDs, and derivatives fall under SEC, but no local framework exists yet.

   • Offshore proprietary trading firms contracting Filipinos aren’t directly regulated by the SEC.

SEC gave a parting statement that it focuses on platforms and not individual traders.

“Our focus is on the PLATFORM, not the TRADERS. As long as you’re posting without the intent to promote and are acting in good faith, you’re good. (Still evaluated on a case-to-case basis).” - Atty. Paolo. Ong

Check out the full article here.

BitPinas Facebook Fan Subscription

👉 Did you know? You can now support BitPinas through Facebook Fan Subscriptions! 🎉

By subscribing, you’ll unlock exclusive perks, and more importantly, you’ll help keep an independent crypto news publication in the Philippines going strong. 🙌

Check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/BitPinas/subscribe/

(Heads up: The link works best on desktop. If it doesn’t load, try copying and pasting it into your browser.)

We’ve also heard from many of you (especially those not on Facebook) and we’re actively exploring other ways to support BitPinas soon. 💡 Thanks for your patience and support!

🇵🇭 Global Watchdog in Action

🏫 PH Crypto Oversight Improves, But FATF Flags Gaps on DeFi, Stablecoins, Offshore Exchanges

The Philippines has made progress in regulating cryptocurrencies. But in its latest June 2025 report, the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) says the country is still only “Partially Compliant” when it comes to virtual asset regulation.

💡 In the article we wrote last week, we mentioned that the initiatives against crypto scams and unlicensed exchanges contributed to the Philippines being moved out of the FATF Grey List.

• But someone pointed that in FATF’s article about the country’s removal in the Grey List, nothing about actions pertaining to virtual asset service providers (VASPs) are mentioned.

• This is unlike FATF’s review of Kenya, which specifically mentioned it.

FATF says there are still gaps in supervising exchanges, identifying unregistered or offshore players, and responding to risks from stablecoins and decentralized finance (DeFi).

What does Partially Compliant even mean?

In simple terms, this rating means the Philippines has the right regulations on paper but not enough action to fully implement them. (This is just my interpretation and the regulators reading this may disagree. I sent an inquiry to both the SEC and the BSP for clarification.)

The AML watchdog wants the following:

• Better detection of unregistered exchanges operating in or targeting the Philippines.

• Stronger enforcement of the Travel Rule (which requires crypto firms to share sender/receiver info during transfers).

• Clear supervision of DeFi platforms and stablecoins, especially those used for fraud or cross-border crimes.

💡 TRIVIA: By the way, the FATF no longer calls “stablecoin” as “so-called stablecoins”.

Progress, I guess!!

🚀 Around the Country

• Hiraya Network, which is funded by Aptos, is going to have a Movers Camp initiative.

• The ‎Philippine Society of Information Technology Educators (PSITE Calabarzon) and Technology Enthusiasts (iSITE) Inc. is endorsing the upcoming Blockchain Campus Conference.

• Upcoming BitBulaga featuring prominent crypto personalities - Aldrin Rabino, Luis Buenaventura, Kuyang Gerome, and Gilbert Lazaro this July 8th.

• Bayanichain’s Paul Soliman featured in Tatler Asia’s Gen.T list.

• Sparkpoint shares roadmap for July.

• Paytaca unveils Paper Wallet Generator.

Scene on the Ground

⛰️ Sui Workshop Series

There are a number of dev workshops happening in the Philippines, one of them is organized by the local Sui community last week. You may check out the post here.

⛰️ Upcoming: Coinfest Asia 2025

All roads lead to Bali as Coinfest Asia is going to happen this August 21. This week they released the first batch of speakers, which includes:

• Ben Zhou, CEO, Bybit

• Stephen Lutz, CEO, BitMEX

• Rachel Conlin, Chief Marketing Officer, Binance

• Mudit Gupta, Chief Information Security Officer, Polygon Labs

• Kevin Kwong, CBO, 9GAG & Memeland

• Amanda Cassatt, Founder & CEO, Serotonin

• Tessa Wijaya, Co-Founder, Xendit

• Alex Svanevik, CEO, Nansen

• Yat Siu, Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Animoca Brands

• Kenny Li, Co-Founder, Manta Network

• Wei Zhou, CEO, Coins.ph

• William Sutanto, CEO, Indodax

• Eowyn Chen, CEO, Trust Wallet

• Saad Ahmed, Head of Asia Pacific, Gemini

• Ella, Head of APAC, Berachain

• Mega Septiandara, Governance Lead, dYdX Foundation

Check out Coinfest Asia here!

🗓️ What’s Next!

Final words

• Thank you for reading! Whether Beehiiv is a temporary or permanent solution for us, we will probably know by next week.

• Please share the newsletter to everyone who you think will find it worth reading

• For the latest news and updates, do not forget to follow BitPinas!