Overview
- The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which approved Memorandum No. M-2026-023 on June 5, 2026, has barred licensed virtual asset service providers from listing or supporting anonymity-enhancing privacy tokens on their platforms.
- The memorandum requires VASPs to apply a six-pillar pre-listing assessment that covers issuer background, market maturity, use cases, transparency and traceability, security, and legal compliance before offering any token.
- Asset-backed and fiat-backed tokens must undergo a lifecycle assessment that checks issuance and redemption mechanics, reserve composition, liquidity support, and the credibility of the issuer.
- Exchanges must implement continuous monitoring with preset thresholds that trigger immediate suspension or delisting for events like liquidity loss, cybersecurity breaches, misleading disclosures, market abuse, or legal violations, and users holding banned privacy tokens on exchanges will need to move or convert them.
- The move formalizes BSP alignment with global anti-money-laundering expectations, keeps in place a multi-year moratorium on new VASP licenses, and means participation in the SEC sandbox does not replace BSP licensing for firms seeking to operate in the Philippines.