Infrawatch PH, a public policy think tank in the Philippines, wrote to the country’s Department of Trade and Industry calling for a ban on Binance for promoting cryptocurrencies without proper licensing, according to a letter accessed by Bitpinas.

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Fast facts

• Binance has been providing services to Filipinos without proper licensing for years, Infrawatch alleged.

• Binance’s promotional campaigns target Filipinos across social media platforms, it added.

• Although not registered in the Philippines, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the exchange is looking to obtain virtual asset service provider (VASP) and electronic money issuer (EMI) licenses last month.

• “Their unregistered activity allows Filipinos to buy and sell cryptocurrencies and with wanton disregard of Philippine regulations,” Terry Ridon, convenor of Infrawatch, wrote in the letter. “They perform the functions of a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) through an unregulated platform.”

• Last month, Infrawatch PH had sent a letter to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to urge the central bank to suspend and ban Binance for operating illegally and reject all its applications for licensing.

• Binance did not respond to a request for comments at the time of publication.

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