The Philippines’ biggest crypto exchange is under pressure from its central bank, but the story has two layers, and they carry very different levels of certainty. The first is confirmed: since late September, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has blocked inbound InstaPay and PESONet transfers into DCPay Philippines Inc., the e-money company behind Coins.ph’s peso wallet. The second is reported: on October 13, CoinDesk said unnamed sources expect further punitive action, with the company’s license possibly at risk.
Here is what is on the record, what is still only reported, and what Coins.ph users can actually check. This is news, not trade advice.
What Is Confirmed: The DCPay Cash-In Suspension
According to BitPinas, the BSP ordered a partial suspension against DCPay Philippines Inc. Philippine Payments Management Inc. (PPMI) told member institutions through PPMI Advisory No. 2026-0929-029, which BitPinas says was issued pursuant to BSP Monetary Board Resolution No. 839. Fintech News Philippines reported the same block and the same resolution.
Under the advisory as BitPinas describes it:
- DCPay cannot receive incoming credit transfers cleared through InstaPay or PESONet. That covers person-to-person transfers in, incoming InstaPay QR transfers, and DCPay’s pilot in InstaPay for Business.
- People sending money into a Coins.ph wallet from banks such as BDO, BPI and UnionBank, or from e-wallets such as GCash and Maya, will see those transfers rejected.
- DCPay can still send money out, and person-to-merchant QRPh payments are unaffected.
BitPinas also noted that, although the advisory allowed outbound transfers, Coins.ph briefly paused all peso movements internally, cash-outs included, to make operational adjustments. Outbound transfers were slated to resume on September 30.
What Coins.ph Told Its Users
Coins.ph’s own user advisory, as reported by BitPinas on October 2, says the BSP directed DCPay to enhance its internal controls. Inbound peso cash-in through InstaPay, PESONet and incoming QRPh collection is suspended. The company says outbound cash-out, merchant QRPh payments, bill payments and crypto trading remain active, that customer balances are safe, and that it is working with the central bank to finish the required control improvements within the regulator’s timelines.
Neither the advisory nor any public BSP statement we could find explains what prompted the order. The Last 30 Days desk found no BSP press release on Resolution 839 in the free sources it checked on October 14.
DCPay Is Not Betur: Why the Entity Split Matters
Coins.ph is one brand, but BitPinas points out that it runs on two separately licensed companies:
- DCPay Philippines Inc. holds an electronic money issuer (EMI) license. It runs the peso wallet, bank integrations and fiat payments. This is the entity under the suspension order.
- Betur Inc. holds a virtual asset service provider (VASP) license. It runs crypto trading, digital-asset wallets and custody.
So the confirmed order hits the peso on-ramp, not the crypto desk itself. In practice, BitPinas notes, users who want to buy crypto with fresh pesos from a bank have to rely on balances they already hold until bank cash-ins reopen. Trading is described as running; topping up is the part that broke.
What Is Reported, Not Confirmed: CoinDesk’s Sources
CoinDesk’s Ian Allison reported on October 13 that Coins.ph is facing punitive action from regulators at the central bank, citing two people with knowledge of the situation. These claims come from unnamed sources and have not been confirmed by the BSP or Coins.ph:
- The infractions are said to involve serving offshore gambling firms.
- According to one of the people, they are serious enough that the company could be stripped of its license to operate. That is a possibility CoinDesk’s source raised, not a decision anyone has announced.
- According to the people, gambling entities moved to Coins.ph after the BSP made supervised e-wallets cut in-app access to gambling sites a little over a year ago.
- One person said the recent restriction on Coins.ph was not time-bound and that no reason was given.
CoinDesk also reported that several senior compliance staff left the exchange this year, naming chief compliance officer Lexi Herrera, AML transaction-monitoring head Chris Beaño and money-laundering reporting officer Irish Calagui. CoinDesk did not give reasons for their exits, and neither do we.
CoinDesk said neither Coins.ph nor the BSP responded to requests for comment by publication time. As of this writing, Coins.ph’s license has not been revoked, and the exchange has not been shut down.
Why It Matters for Filipino Crypto Users
Size is the reason this story travels. CoinDesk reports that Coins.ph has more than 18 million customers and controls an estimated 75% to 80% of peso-to-stablecoin liquidity in the Philippines, a key route in one of the world’s biggest remittance markets. If one company carries that much of the peso-to-stablecoin flow, even a partial block on its inbound bank rails is felt well beyond its own app.
That is also why one of CoinDesk’s sources described a license loss as something that would cause “an earthquake” in the country’s crypto ecosystem. That is an anonymous source describing a hypothetical outcome, not a regulator’s forecast.
What People Are Saying
Most of the local conversation so far is practical rather than speculative. Filipino finance YouTuber Pat Quinto summed up the user-side reality in a video titled “BSP Suspended Cashing In to Coins.PH! However, Transfer From Coins.PH is Still Available!” (October 10). That matches what the advisory says: money in is blocked, money out still works.
Elsewhere, forum threads are mixing genuine account-hold complaints with second-hand rumors about why the BSP acted. Those are anecdotal and are not evidence of what regulators are investigating. If you want a sense of how quickly regional crypto stories can outrun the facts, see our coverage of tampered Ledger wallets sold in Southeast Asia, where the official updates also arrived in stages.
What to Watch Next
- Any public BSP statement on Monetary Board Resolution No. 839 or on Coins.ph specifically.
- Updates on Coins.ph’s official advisory page about when InstaPay, PESONet and QRPh cash-ins return.
- Whether Coins.ph or the BSP responds to the CoinDesk report.
Jamoraquai Take
When the country’s dominant on-ramp loses its inbound bank rails, remittance and peso-stablecoin users feel it first, even while the crypto side keeps trading. The confirmed story is a BSP-ordered cash-in squeeze on DCPay. The CoinDesk layer is unnamed sources saying worse may be coming. Those are two different levels of certainty.
For Philippine crypto readers, the useful move is to watch official BSP and Coins.ph notices, not to fill the gap with group-chat panic. Nothing announced so far says the exchange is closing, and nothing announced so far explains why the BSP acted. Until one of those changes, treat the license talk as reporting to follow, not a fact to act on.
Sources
- Ian Allison, CoinDesk, Oct 13, 2026: Coins.ph, Philippines’ largest crypto exchange, faces central bank regulatory action
- BitPinas, Sept 30, 2026 (updated Oct 2): BSP Suspends Inbound InstaPay and PESONet Transfers for Coins.ph E-Wallet Operator
- BitPinas, Oct 2, 2026: Coins.ph Releases Statement to Users Regarding Cash-In Suspension
- Fintech News Philippines, Sept 30, 2026: BSP Blocks Inbound Transfers to DCPay, But Outbound Still Works
- Pat Quinto on YouTube, Oct 10, 2026: BSP Suspended Cashing In to Coins.PH!
