The infractions, said to involve serving offshore gambling platforms, are serious enough to see the company stripped of its license to operate, according to one of the people.
Earlier this month, the central bank of the Philippines imposed restrictions on deposits through Coins.ph’s main wallet firm, according to people familiar with the process.
Several high-profile compliance staff left the exchange this year, including CCO Lexi Herrera and anti money-laundering specialists Chris Beaño and Irish Calagui.

Coins.ph, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the Philippines, is facing punitive action from financial regulators at the country’s central bank, two people with knowledge of the situation said.

The infractions, which are said to involve serving offshore gambling firms, are serious enough for the 12-year-old company to be stripped of its license to operate, which would cause “an earthquake” in the Philippines’ crypto ecosystem, according to one of the people.

The exchange, which has over 18 million customers, has a 24-hour spot trading volume of about $50 million and controls some 75%-80% of peso-to-stablecoin liquidity in the Philippines, a key transaction in the world's fourth-largest remittance recipient.

More than 10.8 million Filipinos live outside the country, according to the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, though most use banks and money transfer services to repatriate their earnings, some $43 billion a year.

At the start of this month, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reportedly imposed restrictions on deposits to the exchange made through Coins.ph’s main wallet firm, DCPay Philippines.

The restrictions follow the departure of several high-profile compliance staffers, including chief compliance officer Lexi Herrera, the head of anti-money laundering (AML) transaction monitoring Chris Beaño and money laundering reporting officer Irish Calagui.

Coins.ph said it is aware of recent news reports about its operations, including claims about offshore gaming transactions and its engagement with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, in a statement shared with Coindesk after the publication of this article.

The exchange said users’ funds are safe, and the firm continues to operate as a BSP licensed institution and expects to fully restore affected services soon.

“Coins.ph firmly denies any claim that it knowingly serves offshore gaming or gambling operators. We hold ourselves to the requirements and standards of the BSP, AMLC and other regulatory authorities, and full compliance sits at the core of how we operate,” Coins.ph said in the emailed statement.

“We value the media’s role in keeping the public informed and welcome the opportunity to share our perspective. We remain open to engaging with journalists and providing accurate information about Coins.ph,” it said.

The Philippines central bank had not responded to requests for comment by publication time.

A little over a year ago, the central bank clamped down on the use of e-wallet applications for gambling purposes, demanding institutions under its supervision cut in-app access to gambling sites.

As a result, several gambling entities migrated to Coins.ph, according to the people. The move had the added advantage of giving the firms access to crypto and stablecoins for paying offshore partners, according to a third person familiar with central bank regulatory processes.

The recent Coins.ph restriction was not time-bound, unlike the temporary suspensions typically imposed on market participants for failing to comply with throughput or latency requirements, for example. In this case, no reason was given, one of the people said.

Coins.ph was one of the earliest crypto wallets and exchanges in the Philippines and later pivoted to providing broader financial services.

In January 2019, Indonesian technology company Gojek bought Coins.ph for $95 million. Coins.ph was later sold to Wei Zhou, who was previously Binance’s chief financial officer.

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