The Philippines central bank has banned licensed crypto platforms from listing or supporting privacy crypto coins, adding a new restriction on tokens designed to obscure on-chain activity.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the country's central bank, set out the rule in a memorandum on crypto listing guidelines for exchanges, custodians and other crypto firms legally classified as virtual asset service providers, or just VASPs.
"The offering of anonymity enhancing VAs, otherwise known as privacy VAs, is prohibited from being listed/supported by VASPs."
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
- The move puts privacy coins in the same regulatory danger zone that has already led some crypto exchanges globally to delist tokens such as Monero (XMR) and Zcash (ZEC).
- For instance, Binance delisted Monero in 2024, while OKX delisted Monero, Zcash and Dash earlier that year after tightening support for privacy-focused assets.
Read also: Zcash creator slams Telegram founder over privacy claims