19 Companies Licensed to Operate Crypto Exchanges in Philippine Economic Zone

Nineteen firms have been granted provisional licenses to operate crypto exchanges by the Philippine government-owned Cagayan Economic Zone Authority. In addition, eight firms have paid the application fees and are being reviewed. A list of all 27 companies has been published.

Also read: 160 Crypto Exchanges Seek to Enter Japanese Market, Regulator Reveals

Provisional Licenses Issued

The Philippine government-owned Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (Ceza) on Friday published a list of all companies that have been issued Financial Technology Solutions and Offshore Virtual Currency (Ftsovc) and Offshore Virtual Currency (Ovc) licenses as well as those that have paid the application fees and are being reviewed.

As of Oct. 12, a total of 19 companies have received provisional licenses — 17 were issued provisional principal licenses while two were issued provisional regular licenses. Ceza detailed:

Provisional principal licenses [allow licensees] to conduct offshore financial technology solutions business activities and offshore virtual currency exchange activities … Provisional regular licenses [allow them] to conduct offshore virtual currency exchange activities.

The Philippine News Agency previously noted that “A principal license for Ftsovc operation under Ceza is priced [at] USD360,000, while a regular license is at USD85,000.”

Ceza Corporate Board Secretary Catherine Joy Alameda explained in July that provisional licenses are valid for six months. A company “will be able to acquire its permanent license when it is able to fully comply with the requirements of Ceza,” she described.

Licensees must have authorized capital stock of $500,000 with paid-in capital of $200,000. Furthermore, Ceza “requires each cryptocurrency exchange to invest at least USD1 million in a period of two years and must put up a back office in the Philippines,” the news agency wrote.

The 19 Licensees

The 17 companies that have been granted Ftsovc provisional principal licenses are Golden Millennial Quickpay, Ultra Precise Investment, Liannet Technology, Rare Earth Asia Technologies Corp., Formosa Financial Holdings, Tanzer Holdings, Asia Premiere International, Orient Express Global, White Ranch Limited, Dragon Empire Developments, Galaxy Plus Developments, Tiger Wheel, Ipe Global, Cr8tiv Solutions Management, Sino-phil Economic Zone Agency Development and Management Corp., Digifin Technologies, and Hong Kong Yuen Shing Hong.

The two recipients of Ovc provisional regular licenses are Cezex Trading Pte. Ltd. and Unicorn Venture Investment Ltd.

8 Firms Being Reviewed

Ceza is also currently reviewing eight companies that have already paid the application fees for the two types of licenses.

Six companies being reviewed for provisional principal licenses are Bitventures Inc., Mbex Inc., Idragon Science Development Corp., Seryna Coin Metrics Inc., Lideres Inc., and Cx Tech Pte. Ltd.

Two companies, Csm Corp. and Birdmouse Co. Ltd., are being reviewed for provisional regular licenses.

In July, Ceza announced that “about 20,000 jobs in financial technology (fintech) will open up as soon as it awards the initial 25 principal licenses to be made available to qualified fintech companies,” the Philippine News Agency wrote, elaborating:

Ceza expects to earn PHP3.6 billion [$66.6 million] from the initial 25 Ftsovc licenses that it will issue, on top of the 0.1 percent share per transaction value generated from the operation of the fintech firms.

In August, Ceza partnered with Northern Star Gaming and Resorts Inc. to develop a crypto and fintech hub called Crypto Valley of Asia.

What do you think of Ceza licensing all these companies to operate crypto exchanges? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Ceza.

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