Philippine Central Bank Blocks Coins.ph Peso Deposits as Gambling Allegations Draw Scrutiny

New peso funding stops while withdrawals and trading continue

The Philippine central bank has blocked incoming peso transfers to DCPay Philippines Inc., the electronic money issuer behind Coins.ph, under Monetary Board Resolution No. 839. The restriction began on September 29, 2026, and remained in place two weeks later, leaving customers unable to replenish their wallets through the country's two main bank transfer networks.

Coins.ph says it has more than 18 million registered accounts. The platform handles roughly $50 million in spot cryptocurrency trading over 24 hours and accounts for an estimated 75% to 80% of Philippine peso conversion liquidity for stablecoins. That makes the interruption consequential for customers who use the exchange to move between pesos and digital assets.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) imposed a partial suspension on incoming transfers through InstaPay and PESONet, rather than closing the platform. Customers can still withdraw money, pay bills, make merchant payments through QRPh and trade cryptocurrency using funds already held on the exchange.

Coins.ph said the central bank instructed DCPay to strengthen its internal controls. People familiar with the matter have alleged that the regulatory concerns involve transactions connected to offshore gambling businesses. The company denies knowingly serving such operators, while the BSP has not publicly explained the grounds for its action or linked it to gambling.

The immediate effect is straightforward: a customer can sell cryptocurrency and send pesos out to a bank account, but cannot send fresh pesos from that bank into a Coins.ph wallet through the affected networks. The company's cryptocurrency licence, held by a separate entity, remains active.

Which transfers are blocked?

Philippine Payments Management Inc., the payments industry body, communicated the directive to financial institutions through PPMI Advisory No. 2026-0929-029. The advisory cited Monetary Board Resolution No. 839 and required immediate implementation across the payment network.

DCPay is suspended from receiving incoming credit transfers cleared through InstaPay or PESONet. A credit transfer is money sent from one account to another. The restriction therefore affects deposits from external commercial banks, digital banks and other electronic wallets, including transfers from institutions such as BDO, BPI, UnionBank, GCash and Maya.

The suspension also covers incoming InstaPay QR credit transfers and DCPay's pilot participation in InstaPay for Business. Someone using a Coins.ph personal QR code to collect money from an external account faces the same barrier as someone receiving a conventional bank transfer.

Coins.ph's service status page continued to list InstaPay and PESONet deposits as under maintenance two weeks after the restriction began. The incident entry was opened on September 29 at 1 p.m. Manila time. Withdrawals through both networks remained listed as operational.

Why some QR payments still work

QRPh, the national standard for payments using QR codes, supports different kinds of transactions. Receiving a transfer into a Coins.ph wallet is one activity; paying a shop from an existing balance is another. The central bank's restriction blocks the former while leaving payments to merchants available.

DCPay remains authorised to originate outgoing transfers. Wallet holders can send money to other Philippine banks and electronic wallets, and Coins.ph says bill payments also remain available.

The platform's merchant payment network extends to more than 700,000 merchants. Its QRPh integration allows customers to spend supported cryptocurrency balances, including USDT, USDC, Bitcoin and Ethereum, with the assets converted to pesos at checkout. These purchases remain available because merchant payments are outside the incoming transfer suspension.

Customers therefore retain several ways to use their existing funds. The problem is replenishment: once a wallet balance has been spent, withdrawn or used for trading, the affected bank transfer channels cannot supply more pesos.

Two companies sit behind one familiar brand

Coins.ph presents a single platform to customers, but its peso wallet and cryptocurrency services operate through two legally separate companies regulated by the BSP. DCPay Philippines holds an electronic money issuer licence and manages peso balances, bank integrations and payment processing.

Betur Inc. holds a virtual asset service provider licence, commonly called a VASP licence. It operates cryptocurrency trading, digital asset wallets and custody, which means holding digital assets for customers. BSP payment system records list DCPay and Betur separately.

The suspension applies to DCPay's incoming payment operations. Betur's VASP licence has not been suspended, and Coins.ph says its cryptocurrency services continue functioning normally. Buying, selling and holding digital assets remain available, although customers seeking to buy with fresh pesos face the funding restriction.

Coins.ph has operated since 2014, expanding from an early cryptocurrency wallet into a broader financial services platform. Indonesian technology company Gojek acquired it in January 2019 for a reported $95 million. A subsequent sale in 2022 involved Joffre Capital and Wei Zhou, formerly Binance's chief financial officer.

What Coins.ph says about the allegations

Coins.ph issued a statement on October 14 denying that it knowingly serves offshore gambling businesses. The company, speaking through its corporate statement rather than a named executive, said:

Coins.ph firmly denies any claim that it knowingly serves offshore gaming or gambling operators.

A company spokesperson said Coins.ph does not accept or permit offshore gambling operators and continuously screens customers and transactions under BSP requirements. Asked whether transactions involving those operators had occurred, the spokesperson did not directly confirm or deny that point.

Coins.ph also named the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) among the authorities whose requirements it follows. Customer screening checks who is using a financial service, while transaction monitoring examines money movements for activity that may require investigation or reporting.

The company said it is investing in stronger compliance and control functions and working closely with regulators. Its user advisory described the task as completing internal control improvements within the BSP's regulatory timelines. Coins.ph has also said customer balances and wallet funds remain safe under BSP standards.

How the gambling restrictions developed

The allegations concern offshore gambling businesses that people familiar with the situation say moved transactions to Coins.ph after the BSP restricted direct gambling access through financial applications in 2025. According to those people, the exchange gave the businesses access to cryptocurrency and stablecoins for payments to partners abroad.

BSP Memorandum M-2025-029, dated August 14, 2025, required supervised institutions to remove links giving customers direct access to gambling websites from their applications and websites within 48 hours. The BSP cited concerns about consumers' financial health. The directive focused on access links, while officials worked on standards for payment services connected to online gambling.

The regulatory sequence spans more than a year:

• August 14, 2025: BSP Memorandum M-2025-029 ordered the removal of direct gambling access links within 48 hours.
• July 2026: The BSP issued guidance on risk management and safeguards against money laundering for customers involved in casino junket operations.
• September 29, 2026: The restriction on DCPay's incoming InstaPay and PESONet transfers began.
• October 14, 2026: Coins.ph issued its denial and assurance that customer funds were safe.

The July guidance addressed casino junkets, businesses that arrange casino visits and gambling activity for customers. A separate proposed framework for online gambling payments addressed identifying customers and beneficial owners, the people who ultimately own or control a business, along with monitoring transactions and assigning institutional responsibilities.

Coins.ph's own terms prohibit illegal gambling and certain unauthorised gaming activities. The alleged movement of offshore gambling payments onto its platform remains attributed to people familiar with the matter; the regulator has not published a finding detailing the transactions at issue.

Compliance departures and wider payment scrutiny

Three senior compliance employees reportedly left Coins.ph during 2026: chief compliance officer Lexi Herrera, transaction monitoring head Chris Beaño and money laundering reporting officer Irish Calagui. Their roles involved overseeing compliance, examining transactions and handling reporting obligations. Neither Coins.ph nor the BSP has publicly connected their departures to the suspension.

The BSP has also been examining merchant risks across the wider payments industry. A separate investigation found online casinos presenting themselves as businesses such as beauty salons and bakeries to process bets through payment platforms. That investigation led to more than 8,000 merchant account closures.

Earlier in September, the central bank proposed a pause of 12 months on accepting and processing new applications from operators of payment systems. The draft also outlined stronger merchant traceability and direct merchant arrangements for cryptocurrency firms, with additional checks, monitoring and limits. The proposal was still a draft, with no approval date given.

The BSP had separately extended its pause on new VASP licences under Memorandum M-2025-031, subject to reassessment. These measures place the Coins.ph disruption within a wider period of scrutiny of payment companies, their merchants and the businesses using their services.

Why access to these networks matters

InstaPay and PESONet are central to everyday digital payments in the Philippines. BSP figures for a January to September reporting period put their combined transfer value at P25.3 trillion, up 45% from a year earlier. They handled 6.5 billion transactions, an increase of 124%.

InstaPay supports transfers in real time for amounts up to P50,000. It handled nearly P12.7 trillion across 6.4 billion transactions, with value rising 60% and transaction numbers rising 128%. PESONet serves larger transfers as an electronic alternative to checks, processing P12.6 trillion across 99.4 million transactions. Its value rose 33%, while transaction numbers increased nearly 16%.

The two networks therefore moved almost equal amounts of money, P12.7 trillion and P12.6 trillion, despite InstaPay handling vastly more transactions. That reflects their different uses: frequent smaller payments on InstaPay and fewer larger transfers on PESONet. Losing incoming access to both removes important routes for funding a peso wallet.

BSP Circular No. 1238, which took effect on July 4, requires fees for personal transfers between different institutions not to materially differ from fees for transfers within the same institution. Many banks have waived or reduced charges. A BSP Consumer Expectation Survey found that one in three Filipinos considers high fees a barrier to more frequent digital payment use.

Coins.ph's suspension concerns access rather than pricing. Even where a bank transfer is cheap or free, customers cannot use the affected networks to add pesos to the exchange.

A concentrated market awaits a reopening date

Coins.ph's estimated 75% to 80% share of peso to stablecoin liquidity means it accounts for roughly three quarters to four fifths of that market. Liquidity describes how readily users can exchange assets at available prices. Stablecoins are digital tokens designed to track the value of another asset, commonly the US dollar; USDT and USDC are examples.

The suspension restricts the arrival of new peso funds at a major conversion point while leaving existing balances available for trading. This can constrain customers seeking to enter the cryptocurrency market or replenish funds, even while the exchange continues to record substantial trading activity.

The Philippines also receives roughly $43 billion in remittances annually, and more than 10.8 million Filipinos live abroad, according to the Commission on Filipinos Overseas. Most use banks and money transfer services to send earnings home. Coins.ph's conversion market serves customers using digital assets within that broader financial setting.

Coins.ph has said it expects affected services to be fully restored soon, but has given no reopening date. People familiar with the restriction described it as having no specified expiration date. The company's references to regulatory timelines concern completing required improvements, rather than a publicly announced deadline for restoring deposits.

Possible licence revocation has been raised by people familiar with the allegations. No published revocation decision has been announced, and Betur remains licensed. The next concrete development will be a decision on restoring DCPay's incoming transfers or an announcement of further regulatory action.

Key Points

• DCPay's incoming InstaPay and PESONet transfers have been suspended since September 29, 2026, under BSP Monetary Board Resolution No. 839.
• Incoming QR collections are affected, while withdrawals, merchant QRPh payments, bill payments and cryptocurrency trading remain available.
• DCPay operates the peso wallet; Betur holds the separate cryptocurrency service licence, which remains active.
• Coins.ph denies knowingly serving offshore gambling operators and says customer funds are safe.
• The BSP has not publicly explained the grounds for the restriction or linked it to gambling allegations.
• Coins.ph has promised restoration soon without announcing a date.