‘The Ban Changed Everything’: Binance and SEC Reveal Inside Story of the Two-Year Journey Back to the PH

In a candid panel at Philippine Blockchain Week, top officials from the SEC, Binance, and BlockShoals Tech took the stage to pull back the curtain on a multi-year task of bringing the world's largest exchange back to the Philippines under a legal framework.

The discussion featured Atty. Paolo Montano Ong (SEC PhiliFintech Innovation Office), Marie Antonette Quiogue (BlockShoals Tech), and Raj Timothy Nandwani (Binance Global Business Development), tracking how the platform transitioned from an exiled offshore giant into a locally compliant sandbox participant.

Binance's Raj Nandwani immediately addressed the exchange's past friction with local regulators and admitted that the platform only began to seriously consider legally entering the Philippines after the SEC banned it in early 2024.

The full transcript (as well as the video) of the panel during PBW is available on BitPinas here.

Nandwani, who is himself Filipino, revealed that before forming their joint venture with BlockShoals, Binance spent a year conducting a "strategic mapping session." He said they knocked on the doors of the 30 largest conglomerates and family offices in the Philippines to pitch a partnership.

The official said “80% of the time, Binance had the door slammed in our face.” He argued perhaps local business titans lacked the stamina to endure the grueling regulatory process without a clear licensing path. It was only after major international structural developments aligned, such as the Philippines officially exiting the FATF gray list and Binance securing its comprehensive ADGM global license, that a compliant partnership with BlockShoals became a reality.

VASP Loop Closing Soon: BlockShoals' Tonette Quiogue confirmed that they have successfully finalized a partnership with a fully licensed domestic VASP to open PHP transaction channels. Both teams are finishing final technical and legal due diligence, with an official public announcement expected soon.

Three Offshore Exchanges Ordered to Settle Up to ₱20M in Outstanding Fines

In a separate interview, SEC Commissioner Rogelio Quevedo issued a warning to tech innovators: technology cannot outpace compliance.

Quevedo revealed that three specific platforms currently attempting to enter the SEC’s "StratBox" sandbox are blocked from admission until they pay up to an estimated ₱20 million in outstanding financial penalties.

The fines were levied because the platforms aggressively advertised and offered digital currencies to Filipino residents without securing prior regulatory permits. The offshore entities only approached the SEC after the commission successfully coordinated with Google to purge and take down their applications from local mobile storefronts.

SEC Backs Tokenized RWAs to Revive Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Trading Lull

To combat the ongoing trading stagnation observed across traditional capital markets, SEC Commissioner Rogelio Quevedo announced that the regulatory body is highly bullish on Real-World Asset (RWA) tokenization.

He said the Commission is actively inviting digital asset firms to submit formal sandbox applications to test digital representations of physical assets, including fractionalized cash, gold, and real estate. The SEC believes that putting physical inventory on-chain under traditional investor-protection guidelines will stimulate capital market velocity and build deep investor confidence.

BSP Lifts InstaPay and PESONet Fee Hike Moratorium Under Market Rules

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has officially lifted its long-standing moratorium on transaction fee increases for digital payment clearing houses InstaPay and PESONet. Under Memorandum No. 2026-025 and Circular No. 1238, signed by BSP Governor Eli Remolona Jr., BSFIs can now adopt market-based pricing mechanisms backed by actual operational cost metrics.

Coins Launches Cross-Border Footprint in Europe and the UK

Homegrown digital asset platform Coins has partnered with London-based infrastructure giant Clear Junction. The move enables Coins to issue named virtual International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs) to its corporate and institutional clients, opening frictionless payment rails across Euros (EUR) and British Pounds (GBP).

The compliance-first integration provides automated remittance matching and direct access to high-velocity European corridors, including the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA, SEPA Instant), and the UK's Faster Payments network.

BYC Ventures Partners with CeQureX for Post-Quantum Upgrades to Government OS

Local infrastructure company BYC Ventures (operating as BayaniChain Tech Inc.) has joined forces with Taipei-headquartered cybersecurity firm CeQureX to deploy post-quantum cryptographic architecture.

The collaboration focuses heavily on Lumen, BYC Ventures' flagship institutional operating system. CeQureX will audit and modernize legacy cryptographic frameworks to protect long-term public records, including national procurement assets, audit trails, and compliance documentation, against future quantum computing computing exploits.

Jared Dillinger’s New Prontera Corp Debuts AI Disaster App with Naga City Youth

Tech startup New Prontera Technologies Corp. (NPC), led by CEO Jared Dillinger, has launched the early access phase of its decentralized disaster resilience application, bagyo.app.

The system is powered by an automated emergency reporting framework called Agent A.E.R.I.S. (Autonomous Emergency Reporting Intel System). During a live launch at the Summit Hotel, over 80 youth leaders executed mock emergency reports that generated verifiable on-chain transaction hashes. The software leverages Zero-Knowledge (ZK) proofs to maintain completely verifiable public crisis data while keeping a citizen's private identity anonymous.

Blockchain Impact 2026 Convenes Web3 Builders in BGC on June 27

The momentum continues later this month as the high-caliber, single-day summit Blockchain Impact 2026 takes over the BGC Arts Center on June 27.

The summit program focuses heavily on real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, supply chain verifiability, and Web3 prediction markets. Beyond the masterclasses led by MIYI Core CEO Dr. Jack Chia and EGT CEO Michael Menghetti, Bambitz Records CMO Cecilia Wong will introduce their virtual panda band ecosystem on Solana, culminating in an elite, high-energy networking after-party at Revel in BGC.

Register here!

Will you trade on Binance Philippines when it launches?

By Michael Mislos, Editor-in-Chief, BitPinas