GM! What a wild weekend. For the first time ever, Bitcoin dropped by 1 million pesos in just one day. It's a headline that GCrypto exec Luis Buenaventura told us back in 2024 that we were bound to write eventually. That day was last Saturday.
In today’s weekly news recap, these are some of the biggest stories we covered:
🧵 Worldcoin at the crosshairs of the National Privacy Commission
⚖️ A concise summary of the Senate hearing about the National Blockchain Budget Act.
🇸🇬 Token2049 thoughts and insights
🧿 National Privacy Commission Halts Worldcoin Operations in the Philippines
The biggest story last week in the Philippines is the National Privacy Commission's (NPC) issuance of a Cease and Desist Order against Tools for Humanity (TFH), the developer of the Worldcoin project. The order halts all of the company's data processing activities in the country, concluding a multi-month investigation into its iris-scanning operations.
Here’s a summary:
The NPC ruled that consent from users was legally invalid due to “undue financial pressure” from the WLD cryptocurrency incentive, which compromised the requirement that consent be freely given.
The commission also found consent was not “informed,” as users were given a lengthy, technical 29-page privacy notice with inadequate time to comprehend it immediately before their iris scan.
The NPC deemed the collection of immutable biometric data (iris scans) as “excessive and not proportional” to the stated goal of proving personhood, arguing less intrusive methods were available.
The order cites that Worldcoin’s developer failed to prove its claim that biometric data is immediately deleted, and pointed to contradictions in the company’s own documents suggesting data could be retained for up to ten years.
The Cease and Desist Order was justified by the risk of “grave and irreparable injury,” as compromised biometric data poses a permanent threat of identity theft and fraud.
Tools for Humanity (TFH), the project's developer, called the order a “surprising reversal,” suggesting a “change in leadership” at the NPC was the cause, and confirmed they will appeal the decision.
A local Worldcoin operator maintained that the company acted in “full compliance” with the Data Privacy Act and worked closely with regulators.
🇵🇭 Sen. Bam Aquino Leads Senate Hearing on National Budget Blockchain Act
Sen. Bam Aquino hopes that the bill, to be called “National Budget Blockchain Act” will be signed into law before the year ends.
Here’s a summary of the Senate Hearing:
The bill aims to improve transparency and accountability by recording all national budget transactions as Digital Public Assets (DPAs) on a blockchain ledger.
Popular Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong testified and advocated for blockchain as a tool for corruption. He shared the blockchain pilot program in his city called “GoodGovChain”
Bayanichain confirmed that the Baguio project is piggybacked on the existing blockchain budget provided by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
Resource persons from Twala and the DICT emphasized that blockchain will make corruption significantly harder to hide because there will be a real-time public-facing portal where we can track budget funds.
DICT Secretary Henry Aguda has agreed to ask President Marcos to certify the bill as urgent.
The Blockchain Council of the Philippines issued a statement of support for the bill.
Senator Aquino expressed hope that if the bill is passed this year, phased implementation could allow the Filipino people to see the results by 2026.
(So that’s the summary! For the full article, check it here.)
🛣️ Token2049 Highlights
Occupying five floors of the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Exhibition Centre, and with thousands of side events all across Singapore, Token2049 is truly the world’s largest crypto conference.
Two big topics dominated the discussion:
Stablecoins (plus local stablecoins). Kaia’s side vent called Kaia Summit, the entire discussions were mostly about stablecoins. If I remember correctly there was also a stablecoin summit that happened.
The merging of crypto and traditional finance. Most of the discussions are about this. In Day 2, Robinhood’s Vlad Tenev said it best — in the future there will be no distinction between crypto and tradfi. Everything will just be finance.
Check out the article here.
🇵🇭 Around the Philippines
DICT and YGG Pilipinas introduced Sui Builder House Puerto Princesa.
SparkPoint joined SuiFest Singapore, a builders, founders, and innovators shaping the future of on-chain experiences.
YGG Play Summit tickets are now live.
LOL Land’s new board Robo Factory is now live.
BCC Luzon 2025 announced John Lorence Cahiwat, Co-founder and CEO of Skyshare Labs, as one of the mentors for Hack, Build, UNBLOKC 2025.
🏎️ Scene on the Ground: Based Friends Biñan
Base Philippines held its Based Friends Biñan meetup on September 19 to connect local web3 builders and newcomers in the city.
📅 Event Calendar
Final words
Thank you for reading! Let us know what you think of the new format!
Please share the newsletter with everyone who you think will find it worth reading
For the latest news and updates, do not forget to follow BitPinas or subscribe to this newsletter!
By Michael Mislos, Editor-in-Chief, BitPinas