The licence list of the Bangko Sentral

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas licenses providers that exchange or transfer virtual assets for the public. A licence is a permission to operate under its rules, not a guarantee of conduct. The list is a snapshot read weekly, and a row records what the source published, not a finding of ours.

Crypto providers licensed by the central bank

The provider's name as the Bangko Sentral lists it and the date of the list.

What a licence from the Bangko Sentral is

The Bangko Sentral licenses providers that exchange or transfer virtual assets for the public. A licence means the provider has applied, paid the required fees, and met the central bank's conditions to operate under its rules. It is a permission to do business, not a promise that the provider will always act in the customer's interest.

The licence is specific to the activities listed in the central bank's decision. A provider licensed to exchange virtual assets may not be licensed to offer other services. The licence can be revoked or suspended, and the central bank can issue rules that change what a licensed provider must do.

The list is a snapshot read weekly

This site reads the Bangko Sentral's published list once a week. A change made between reads is not reflected until the next read. The date shown for each row is the date the source published it, not the date this site read it. A reader should confirm on the Bangko Sentral's own site before acting.

A snapshot is not a live register. A licence that appears in the list may have been revoked after the source published it, and a new licence may not yet appear. The list is one record among several that a reader can check before choosing a venue.

What a row in the table shows

The table above this text shows four columns. The first is the name exactly as the source wrote it. The second is the date the source published it. The third is the kind of licence. The fourth is a link to the original on the Bangko Sentral's site.

A row records what the source published. It is not a finding by this site that the provider is safe, solvent, or honest. The reader should open the link and read the original to see the full record, including any conditions or notes the central bank attached.

What a licence does not cover

A licence from the Bangko Sentral does not cover offers of securities or investment contracts. Those fall under the Securities and Exchange Commission. A licensed provider may still be the subject of an SEC advisory, and the two records are separate. The licence list answers one question: who the central bank has licensed.

A licence also does not insure the customer's coins. If a licensed provider fails, the customer may lose the assets held with it. The central bank does not operate a deposit insurance scheme for virtual assets. The reader should keep only what they can afford to lose on a venue.

How to use the list

Before sending money to a venue, a reader can search the list for the name the venue uses. The name in the list should match the name in the venue's terms and in the receipt. A mismatch is a reason to ask the venue for an explanation.

The list is not the only check. The reader should also look at the SEC's advisories for the same name, and at the domain creation date. None of these records alone proves that a venue is safe, but together they help the reader see what regulators have published.

Confirm on the Bangko Sentral's own site

This site's table is a copy of what the Bangko Sentral published. The reader should confirm on the Bangko Sentral's own site before relying on it. The central bank's site is the authoritative source for its licence list.

The link in each row points to the original. If the link is broken, the reader can search the Bangko Sentral's site for the provider's name. The regulator may also publish updates, warnings, or revocations that are not yet reflected here.

A licence is a permission to operate, not a promise to protect a client's coins

When the Bangko Sentral issues a licence to a virtual asset service provider, it is granting that firm permission to offer defined services within Philippine rules. The licence is a regulatory gate: the firm has shown it meets requirements for registration, reporting, and basic safeguards such as keeping client assets separate from its own. That does not mean the central bank will reimburse a user if the firm fails, is hacked, or mismanages funds. A licence is not deposit insurance, and crypto held with a licensed venue is not covered by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Users sometimes read a licence as a seal of safety, but the regulator's own warnings make a different point. The Bangko Sentral has repeatedly said that virtual assets are high-risk and that users can lose the entire value of their holdings. Even a licensed provider can suffer operational losses, technical failures, or fraud by its own staff. The licence means the firm passed an entry check and is expected to follow rules; it does not mean the central bank monitors every transaction or guarantees the firm's solvency.

The practical consequence of this distinction is that a licence is a starting point for due diligence, not the end of it. A user who wants to trade on a licensed venue should still look at how the firm stores keys, whether it publishes proof of reserves, and what its track record is. The licence tells a user that the firm has a legal obligation to report to the central bank and to follow its rules, but it does not tell a user whether the firm's technology is sound or its management honest. That judgment remains with the user.

A licence from the Bangko Sentral does not cover everything a crypto venue might sell

The Bangko Sentral's list of licensed virtual asset service providers covers a specific set of activities: exchanging between virtual assets and fiat currency, exchanging between different virtual assets, transferring virtual assets, and safekeeping or administration of virtual assets. If a venue offers other financial products, such as lending against crypto, staking with promised yields, or derivatives, those activities may fall under different rules or require separate licences from other regulators. A licence for virtual asset services does not automatically permit a firm to offer every product that appears on its website.

This mismatch can arise when a licensed venue adds new features after receiving its licence. The central bank's approval was based on the firm's business plan at the time of application. If the firm later launches a staking product that pays a return, or a lending pool where users deposit crypto to earn interest, those products may be outside the scope of the original licence. The firm might be required to seek additional approval, or the product might fall under the Securities and Exchange Commission's jurisdiction if it is deemed an investment contract.

A user who assumes that a licence covers all the venue's offerings can be caught off guard. The safer approach is to check what the licence actually authorises and compare it with the specific service the user intends to use. The Bangko Sentral's list does not break down each firm's permitted activities in detail, so a user may need to read the firm's own disclosures or contact the central bank for clarification. The key point is that a licence is not a blanket permission for everything a crypto business might do.

The list shows who has a licence today, but it does not show who lost one or was refused

The Bangko Sentral's published list is a snapshot of firms that currently hold a licence. It does not include firms that previously held a licence but had it revoked, suspended, or surrendered. It also does not include firms that applied for a licence and were refused. A user who looks only at the current list will not see the full history of regulatory actions, and that history can be important when assessing a venue's reliability.

A firm that lost its licence may have failed to meet reporting requirements, breached anti-money laundering rules, or faced other enforcement actions. The fact that it is absent from the current list might be interpreted by a user as meaning the firm never had a licence, when in fact it did and lost it. Similarly, a firm that was refused a licence might still be operating without one, and a user might not realise that the regulator has already rejected its application.

To get a fuller picture, a user would need to check the central bank's press releases or enforcement actions, which are not always consolidated in one place. The licence list is a useful starting point, but it is not a complete record of the regulator's decisions. A user who wants to know whether a firm has ever been disciplined should look beyond the list and consult official announcements or direct inquiries to the Bangko Sentral.

The list includes foreign firms that serve Filipinos, but a local licence is not the same as a local office

Some firms on the Bangko Sentral's list are incorporated in other countries but have obtained a Philippine licence to offer virtual asset services to residents. This is possible under the central bank's rules, which allow foreign entities to apply if they meet the same requirements as local firms. However, a foreign firm with a Philippine licence is not necessarily required to maintain a physical office or local staff in the country, and its operations may be run from abroad.

This can affect how a user experiences the venue. Customer support may be based in a different time zone, dispute resolution may be subject to foreign law, and enforcement of the licence conditions may be more difficult if the firm's primary operations are outside the Philippines. The central bank can still impose penalties or revoke the licence, but recovering funds from an overseas entity can be more complicated than from a local one.

A user who prefers to deal with a local company should check whether the licensed firm is incorporated in the Philippines or is a foreign entity with a Philippine branch. The licence list does not always make this distinction clear, but the firm's own disclosures or the central bank's records may indicate it. The presence of a licence does not guarantee that the firm has a local presence or that local courts will have jurisdiction over disputes.

A licence does not mean the Bangko Sentral has approved the venue's specific coins or tokens

When the Bangko Sentral licenses a virtual asset service provider, it approves the firm's business operations, not the individual cryptocurrencies or tokens that the firm may list for trading. The central bank does not maintain a list of approved coins or tokens, and it does not vet each asset for quality, legitimacy, or investment merit. The decision to list a particular coin rests with the venue, subject to its own internal policies and any other applicable regulations.

This means a licensed venue could list a coin that later turns out to be worthless, fraudulent, or delisted by other exchanges. The licence does not protect a user from buying a bad asset. The central bank's oversight focuses on the firm's compliance with anti-money laundering rules, consumer protection standards, and operational requirements, not on the financial soundness of the assets traded.

A user who assumes that a licensed venue only lists safe or vetted coins is mistaken. The venue's licence is about the firm, not the products. Before buying any coin, a user should research the asset independently, including its technology, team, market history, and any warnings from other regulators. The licence is only one part of the picture, and it says nothing about the quality of the coins on offer.

The list is updated by the central bank, but the timing of updates can lag behind real changes

The Bangko Sentral updates its list of licensed virtual asset service providers periodically, but there can be a delay between a change in a firm's licence status and the publication of that change. A firm might have its licence revoked today, but the list might still show it as licensed until the next update cycle. Conversely, a firm might receive a licence but not appear on the public list for some time while the central bank processes the documentation.

This lag can create confusion for users who rely on the list as a real-time indicator. A venue that claims to be licensed might not yet appear on the list, even if its application has been approved. A venue that has lost its licence might still appear as licensed for a short period. The list is a snapshot, not a live feed, and users should treat it as a reference point rather than a minute-by-minute status.

To confirm the current status of a venue, a user can contact the Bangko Sentral directly through its official channels or check for any recent press releases. The central bank does not provide a real-time licence lookup for virtual asset service providers, so the published list remains the most accessible source, but it should be used with an understanding of its limitations. The date of the list's last update is usually shown, and that can help a user gauge how current the information is.