What the BSP’s Coins.ph Restriction Means for Operators and Payment Teams.

Signal Spotlight · Philippine crypto payments and BSP scrutiny

What is confirmed

On 29 September, a Philippine Payments Management Inc. advisory (No. 2026-0929-029), issued under BSP Monetary Board Resolution No. 839, partially suspended DCPay Philippines, according to BitPinas. DCPay is the e-money issuer behind Coins.ph's peso wallet. It can no longer receive incoming transfers through InstaPay or PESONet. That means cash-ins from other banks and e-wallets, including GCash and Maya, are rejected. Its InstaPay for Business pilot was also suspended. Crypto.news reports it found no public explanation from the BSP for the decision.

Coins.ph temporarily paused all peso cash movements on 30 September to make technical changes, and cash-outs were back by 1 October, per BitPinas and crypto.news. Coins.ph's advisory says the BSP "has directed Coins.ph to introduce enhancements to our internal controls." It gives no restoration date. Blockhead reports the status page still listed cash-ins as under maintenance two weeks later.

Coins.ph operates through two licensed entities. DCPay holds the e-money issuer license, and Betur, Inc. holds the virtual asset service provider license for crypto trading and custody. Blockhead reports Betur's license has not been suspended.

What still works

According to Coins.ph and BitPinas, existing customers can still send money out to bank accounts and e-wallets, pay at stores by QRPh, pay bills and trade crypto. Coins.ph's status page showed over-the-counter cash-in through Cebuana Lhuillier, M Lhuillier and Palawan Express via DragonPay as operational, but the page may be out of date, so confirm with Coins.ph before relying on it.

What is reported but not confirmed

Possible further action. On 13 October, CoinDesk reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, that Coins.ph's operating license could be at risk over transactions linked to restricted offshore gambling operators. The BSP has not commented, and the coverage we found describes no formal announcement.

The alleged mechanism. According to CoinDesk's sources, some offshore gaming operators moved their transactions to Coins.ph after the BSP's August 2025 order requiring e-wallets to remove in-app gambling links. They allegedly used stablecoins such as USDT and USDC to settle payments with offshore partners. Neither CoinDesk nor the outlets repeating it independently verified this.

The company's response. Coins.ph told BitPinas it "firmly denies any claim that it knowingly serves offshore gaming or gambling operators". It says user funds are safe and that it continues to operate as a BSP-licensed institution, and that it is in discussions with the BSP.

Staff departures. CoinDesk reports that three senior compliance staff have left this year. Blockhead notes no link to the BSP action has been established.

Why it matters

The signal is where payment pressure goes when one route is closed. The 2025 order targeted in-app links from e-wallets to gambling sites. The report, if accurate, describes flows moving to a different rail rather than stopping. That is unproven, but it is the question regulators and payment firms will ask next. This is our reading, not a finding by the BSP.

The scale explains the attention. Coins.ph reports more than 18 million registered accounts. CoinDesk estimates it handles 75% to 80% of the Philippines' peso-to-stablecoin liquidity, a figure Crypto Adventure says has not been independently verified. A restriction on peso cash-ins at a platform of that size affects ordinary users, not only the businesses named in the reports.

It also fits a pattern of tighter payment rules. On 7 September, Cointelegraph reported a BSP draft circular that would pause new payment system operator registrations for 12 months. The same draft would require BSP-supervised merchant acquirers to apply enhanced due diligence, monitoring and transaction and settlement limits to merchants that are virtual asset service providers, a list that also covers gambling businesses and gaming providers. It is a draft, not a final rule, and the reported rationale is a review of the licensing framework, not gambling or fraud. BitPinas also notes that the BSP's September crackdown on online casinos disguised as other businesses led to more than 8,000 merchant account closures. It does not link that figure to Coins.ph. We read these as context for gambling-related payment scrutiny, not as evidence about this case.