The Philippines’ financial watchdog is sending a message to the crypto industry, you either register or stay out. The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission issued a public investor alert this week naming seven crypto trading platforms it says are operating in the country without proper authorization.
The list includes dYdX, Aevo, gTrade, Pacifica, Orderly, Deriv and Ostium, a mix of decentralized finance protocols and derivatives platforms that have attracted users across Southeast Asia.
According to the SEC, none of the platforms hold a license under the country’s crypto-asset service provider (CASP) framework, the regulatory structure the Philippines uses to govern companies offering crypto-related services to the public. Under that framework, firms must obtain a license and satisfy capital and operational requirements before they can solicit investments from Filipino users.
The regulator concluded that all seven appear to be doing exactly that without clearing any of those hurdles. Under Sections 28 and 73 of the Securities Regulation Code, the Philippines’ primary securities law, individuals acting as sales agents, promoters or endorsers of unlicensed investment schemes could face fines of up to 5 million Philippine pesos, or roughly $89,000, along with prison sentences of up to 21 years.
The law does not limit liability to the platform operators themselves. Anyone recruiting users or marketing these services on social media could fall within its reach.
dYdX and the decentralized exchange problem
dYdX is the most prominent name on the list and arguably the trickiest for regulators to handle. It is a decentralized exchange, commonly called a DEX, that allows users to trade perpetual futures contracts on cryptocurrencies without handing over custody of their funds to a central operator.
Perpetual futures, or perps, are a type of derivative that lets traders speculate on the price of an asset without an expiry date on the contract. The platform offers up to 50x leverage across more than 140 cryptocurrency markets, including Bitcoin, Ether and Solana.
Unlike a centralized exchange such as Binance or Coinbase, dYdX processes trades through smart contracts, self-executing pieces of code on a blockchain, which means there is no single company holding user funds or controlling order execution. The protocol has accumulated over $1.52 trillion in all-time trading volume and remains one of the most widely used decentralized derivatives venues in the world.
That decentralized structure creates a genuine regulatory puzzle. The SEC’s advisory treats dYdX the same way it would treat any unlicensed foreign broker, but the absence of a central operator makes enforcement less straightforward than simply ordering a company to shut down.
There is no single point to block, no app to remove from a store. The protocol’s code runs onchain regardless of where its users are located. That said, the advisory still carries weight, even if the platform itself is unreachable, local promoters and affiliates face real legal exposure under Philippine law.
A pattern of escalating enforcement
The latest advisory fits a recognizable pattern for Philippine regulators, who have spent the past two years steadily tightening their grip on the crypto sector.
Binance was the first major target. In 2024, authorities moved to block access to the exchange after a compliance deadline expired, directing app stores to remove its trading app from devices in the country. That set a precedent where the Philippines was willing to act.
The crackdown then expanded well beyond Binance. In August 2025, the SEC issued an advisory against 10 exchanges including OKX, Bybit, KuCoin and Kraken, flagging them for offering services without registration.
Then, on Christmas Eve 2025, Coinbase and Gemini, two of the most recognized names in regulated crypto, were blocked outright despite their strong compliance track records in the United States and Europe.
The fact that Coinbase and Gemini were caught up in the sweep signals that the Philippine SEC is not distinguishing between reputable and less reputable platforms when it comes to CASP registration. If a firm hasn’t gone through the local licensing process, it gets flagged.
What the framework is trying to do
The CASP framework requires crypto service providers, exchanges, brokers, custodians, and similar firms, to register with the SEC, maintain minimum capital levels, demonstrate operational safeguards and meet anti-money laundering compliance standards before they can lawfully serve Filipino users.
The framework was designed to bring the country’s crypto market in line with global standards, extending the same investor protection principles applied to traditional securities and financial services.
The Philippines has a large and active crypto user base, driven partly by remittance use cases and partly by the country’s relatively high smartphone penetration and familiarity with digital payments. That makes it an attractive market for global crypto platforms and a jurisdiction where unregulated activity carries meaningful consumer risk.
The seven platforms flagged this week run the range from well-known DeFi protocols to less mainstream names. Aevo and gTrade are decentralized derivatives platforms. Deriv is a longer-established online trading firm that offers crypto products alongside forex and traditional financial instruments. Orderly is a liquidity infrastructure layer. Ostium focuses on real-world asset perps. Pacifica is the least widely covered of the group.
Not all of this week’s flagged platforms are obscure corners of the internet. Several have significant user bases elsewhere. But user base size has not appeared to affect the Philippine SEC’s calculus, the requirement is registration, and the advisory makes clear that is non-negotiable.
The regulator has also flagged that compliant firms continue to operate and expand while unlicensed ones are being pushed out. Licensed local players like PDAX have been rolling out new products, and digital bank GoTyme launched crypto services for its users through a registered arrangement.
The two-track environment, enforcement against unlicensed players, green lights for compliant ones, appears to be the model the Philippines is building toward.