The Philippines Wants to Freeze New Payment Licenses for 12 Months — and Crypto Firms Just Landed in the Same Risk Bucket as Casinos

The Philippines’ central bank wants to hit pause on new payment operator registrations for a full year — and crypto firms are being lumped into the same risk bucket as gambling and adult businesses. The draft rules, published this week, could reshape how millions of Filipinos move money to and from crypto platforms.

By Maria Rodriguez | September 7, 2026

The Hook: A 12-Month Freeze on the Plumbing of Digital Money

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the country’s central bank, has proposed a draft circular that would suspend the acceptance and processing of new applications from operators of payment systems (OPS) for 12 months. In plain terms: if your company wants to become a new payment middleman in the Philippines, the door is closing for a year while the regulator rethinks its entire licensing framework.

The BSP said the freeze would allow a “holistic review” of its taxonomy and licensing framework — regulator-speak for “we need to figure out what all these new payment businesses actually do before we license more of them.” Applications submitted before the suspension could still be evaluated, but the BSP would neither approve nor deny any of them until the pause ends. Entities would also be barred from launching activities that require OPS registration unless the regulator explicitly authorizes them.

What the Draft Actually Says About Crypto

The crypto-specific part is where it gets pointed. The proposal would require BSP-supervised institutions offering merchant acquisition services — the companies that connect shops and online platforms to the banking system — to handle regulated virtual asset service providers (VASPs) only through direct merchant arrangements. Those relationships would face:

• Enhanced due diligence and monitoring — deeper background checks and continuous oversight of the relationship.
• Transaction and settlement limits — caps on how much money can move per transaction and per settlement cycle.
• Other risk-based controls — measures tailored to how risky the arrangement is judged to be.

The requirement covers virtual asset firms that must be licensed, registered or authorized by the BSP, the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission, or another authority. And here is the detail that stings for the crypto industry: in the draft, VASPs are listed alongside gambling businesses, gaming providers, adult-oriented businesses and money service businesses. The central bank is treating crypto payment channels with the same caution it applies to casinos.

The Core Conflict: Consumer Protection vs. Access

Why is the BSP doing this now? The Philippines is one of the world’s most crypto-active populations, and payment rails are the bridge between fiat bank accounts and digital assets. When that bridge is loosely supervised, it can be used for scams, money laundering and unlicensed gambling flows. Tightening the screws on how VASPs connect to the formal payment system is a classic consumer-protection move.

The cost is friction. Payment operators that serve crypto businesses will face more compliance overhead, and some of that cost typically gets passed on to users through higher fees or stricter onboarding. New payment startups — including crypto-friendly ones — lose a year of market access. The BSP is accepting public feedback, and the draft would take effect 15 days after publication if finalized. Cointelegraph said it reached out to the BSP for comment but had not received a response before publication.

This does not land in a vacuum. The Philippine SEC has recently flagged platforms including dYdX and six other crypto services as unauthorized. Regulators across the archipelago are clearly coordinating a broader tightening.

Market Implications: What It Means for Investors and Users

If you hold crypto on a Philippine platform, the practical risks are procedural rather than existential. Licensed exchanges and VASPs are not being shut down — the rules target the payment plumbing around them. Still, expect stricter identity checks, possible limits on how much you can move per transaction, and longer processing times as payment providers comply.

For the broader market, the Philippines matters because it is a template. Emerging markets with heavy crypto adoption are watching how peers balance innovation against capital controls and fraud. A 12-month registration freeze paired with casino-tier scrutiny of VASPs sends a message: the era of light-touch payment integration is ending, and crypto firms that want bank connectivity will have to accept bank-grade supervision.

The Verdict: Read the Signals, Not Just the Headline

The BSP’s proposal is not a ban on crypto, and treating it as one would misread it. It is a regulator methodically walling off the payments system from risks it does not yet fully understand — while keeping the door open for licensed players who accept enhanced oversight. If you operate or invest in Philippine crypto infrastructure, the watch-items are simple: whether the freeze is finalized as drafted, how strict the transaction limits end up, and whether other Southeast Asian regulators copy the playbook.

For everyday users, nothing changes yet — this is a draft. But the direction of travel is unmistakable: more documentation, more limits, more scrutiny. The projects that survive will be the ones that treat compliance as a feature, not a fight.

The cryptocurrency market remains highly volatile. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.