Philippine central bank orders temporary halt to Coins.ph bank and e-wallet deposits

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ordered DCPay Philippines, the e-wallet operator for local crypto exchange Coins.ph, to temporarily stop receiving funds through InstaPay and PESONet. As a result, person-to-person transfers from external banks or e-wallets to Coins.ph, as well as InstaPay QR deposits, have been restricted. Under BSP guidelines, DCPay’s outbound transfers and merchant payments using QR codes remain allowed, local media outlet BitPinas reported. Coins.ph, however, has separately suspended peso deposits and withdrawals for system maintenance and plans to resume external transfers later. The exchange’s cryptocurrency trading and custody services are operated by a separate entity, Betur, and are not a direct target of the measure.