BlockShoals Partners With BSP-Licensed VASP for Binance Entry
BlockShoals Technologies selected a Bangko Sentral-licensed Virtual Asset Service Provider to meet its SEC StratBox testing requirements after the BSP confirmed neither BlockShoals nor Binance holds a VASP Certificate of Authority in the Philippines.
Key Takeaway
Sandbox approval doesn't replace BSP licensing — BlockShoals needs both SEC testing clearance and a VASP partner.
BlockShoals Technologies Head of Legal and Director Marie Antonette Quiogue said the company always planned to work with a BSP-regulated Virtual Asset Service Provider, describing it as a built-in requirement of its testing plan approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2025.
The central bank clarified that sandbox participants must continue to comply with all applicable licensing requirements imposed by relevant regulators.
BlockShoals met with the SEC and BSP's Technology Risk and Innovation Supervision Department on May 29 to inform regulators it was finalizing a partnership agreement with a BSP-accredited VASP. The company issued a statement on June 12 announcing it had selected a partner that is properly regulated with strong compliance systems and a commitment to investor protection.
The SEC granted BlockShoals a 90-day integration period under the StratBox framework strictly for testing and technical infrastructure development. The regulator emphasized this does not constitute a public relaunch of Binance-related trading services in the country and revised BlockShoals' testing terms to identify Binance as a global Crypto-Asset Service Provider rather than a VASP.
BlockShoals positioned itself as Binance's Philippine market re-entry vehicle after years of scrutiny over offshore crypto activity. The SEC StratBox approval explicitly allows no onboarding, no registrations, and no public trading during the integration period that began June 12, 2026.
🇵🇭 Filipino Impact
Filipino crypto users will need to wait beyond the 90-day testing window for any public access to Binance services through BlockShoals. The dual-regulator structure means BSP controls actual trading permissions while SEC oversees the testing phase, adding a compliance layer that extends Binance's Philippine market re-entry timeline indefinitely until the unnamed VASP partner integration is complete.
This article was written based on reporting from Newsbytes.
