Kelvin Lee, who is the head of the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has changed his mind about why Binance and other unregistered platforms are being banned.
Lee says that the rule will go into effect three months after the November 29 advisory. There is a lot of confusion on the internet after the advisory that came out on November 28 warning Binance about operating without the right license. This statement comes at the same time.
Lee talked about the issue at a panel meeting on December 13 and stressed that the ban could be extended based on what people said. The original suggestion was for a one-month ban, or maybe even a one-week transition time. Lee, on the other hand, chose a longer time frame because of the Christmas break and so as not to make things hard for Filipino investors during that time.
Lee also said that OctaFX and MiTrade, two other exchanges that were recently warned for running without a license, will be banned after three months. The SEC has made a long list of exchanges that aren’t registered and plans for warnings to start coming out slowly. Based on what happened with Binance, the regulatory body is taking a “wait-and-see” method to decide if these exchanges will register.
There has been criticism of the Binance ban, with some saying that the exchange is “cheaper” than registered options. Lee responded by pointing out that private exchanges had lower costs because they didn’t have to worry about registration and compliance, unlike registered exchanges that do have to pay for compliance.
Lee told local buyers to focus on registered businesses and said that there are currently 17 registered virtual asset service providers in the country that offer fiat-to-crypto services. He stressed how important registration is for protecting consumers and asked investors to work with registered businesses to ensure safety and compliance.
ALSO READ
- Philippines and US SEC join forces to crack down on crypto fraud
- Wall Street titan Jamie Dimon: “Crypto should be banned”
- Binance suspends new UK user sign-ups amid regulatory scrutiny