Update, 11:00 am UTC: Added a follow-up response from a Coins.ph spokesperson.

Philippine cryptocurrency exchange Coins.ph said it remains licensed by the country's central bank, pushing back against reports that it could face license revocation over alleged transactions involving restricted offshore gambling operators.

Coins.ph is one of the largest crypto exchanges in the Philippines, recording approximately $52 million in 24-hour spot trading volume on Wednesday, according to CoinGecko.

The reported license risk follows restrictions imposed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on incoming InstaPay and PESONet transfers involving DCPay Philippines, the entity operating Coins.ph's peso e-wallet services. InstaPay and PESONet are the Philippines' two national retail payment systems for bank and e-wallet transfers, meaning the measures concern the flow of pesos into and out of the platform's wallet rather than its crypto trading services.

“Coins.ph firmly denies any claim that it knowingly serves offshore gaming or gambling operators,” the company said in an official statement shared with Cointelegraph on Wednesday. “Our users' funds are safe; we continue to operate as a BSP-licensed institution,” it added.

Asked whether transactions involving offshore gambling operators had been processed through its platform, a Coins.ph spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the exchange does not accept or permit such operators and continuously screens customers and transactions in line with BSP requirements. The company did not directly confirm or deny whether such transactions had occurred.

BSP Restrictions Target Coins.ph Payment Services

In an earlier advisory, Coins.ph said the BSP had instructed it to strengthen internal controls. The company said cash-in services and QRPh collections were temporarily unavailable, while crypto trading, cash-outs, bill payments and merchant QRPh payments remained accessible. QRPh is the central bank's national QR payment standard.

Local media outlet BitPinas reported that the restrictions were imposed under BSP Monetary Board Resolution No. 839.

DCPay holds an electronic money issuer license, while Betur Inc. operates the exchange's crypto asset services under a virtual asset service provider license. The restrictions reportedly targeted DCPay's payment operations rather than Betur's crypto services, a division of licenses that left the exchange's trading services online even as its peso cash-in channels were curtailed.

The development comes as Philippine regulators weigh a payment operator registration freeze and tighter checks on virtual asset service providers — measures that would define the operating environment for licensed platforms like Coins.ph if adopted.

In 2025, the central bank ordered supervised financial institutions to remove links providing access to gambling websites from their payment applications. However, the BSP has not publicly linked that directive to the restrictions on Coins.ph.

Cointelegraph also sought confirmation and comment from the BSP. A central bank representative said they would look into the inquiry but had not provided further comment at the time of publication. With the BSP yet to elaborate, whether the restrictions remain confined to Coins.ph's payment operations, or extend to the exchange's license itself, is the key open question.