The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the Philippines has announced that it wants Google and Apple app stores to remove the Binance app.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the Southeast Asian country is reportedly working with tech giants Google and Apple for the removal of any applications operated by Binance in app marketplaces accessible in the Philippines.
In separate letters dated April 19, addressed to Google and Apple, the SEC requested ” the removal of applications controlled by Binance.com from Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, respectively.”
SEC Chairperson Emilio B. Aquino said in the letter:
“The SEC has identified [Binance] and concluded that the public’s continued access to these websites/apps poses a threat to the security of the funds of investing Filipinos,”
The SEC Chair explained that “the sale or offer of unregistered securities to Filipinos and operating as an unregistered broker constitutes a violation of Republic Act no. 8799, or The Securities Regulation Code.”
Aquino noted that removing and blocking Binance applications will “prevent the further proliferation of its illegal activities in the country and protect the investing public from its detrimental effects on our economy.”
This follows the request by the SEC with the National Telecommunications Commission “to block access to websites used by Binance in the country, in order to help stop its unauthorized investment solicitation activities in the country.”
The SEC warned the public “against investing in and using Binance, as well as started studying the possible blocking of Binance’s website and other online presence in the Philippines, as early as November 2023.”
Binance offers a platform for trading financial instruments and investment products—including spot trading using leverage, futures contracts, option contracts, cryptocurrency savings accounts, cryptocurrency staking services, and a platform for initial coin offerings.
According to its website, it currently has “an average daily trading volume of $65 billion covering more than 402 cryptocurrencies, with a membership of over 183 million, making it the largest cryptocurrency site in the world.”
The group has been actively “employing promotional campaigns on social media to attract Filipinos to engage in investment and trading activities using its platforms.”
Binance, however, has “not secured from the SEC a license to solicit investments from the public, nor to create or operate an exchange for the buying and selling of securities, as required by SRC.”
The SEC urges Filipino investors “with investments in Binance to immediately close their positions and/or transfer their cryptocurrency holdings to their own crypto wallets or in accounts with cryptocurrency service providers that are duly registered in the Philippines.”
