Philippines blocks Coinbase, Gemini amid wider crackdown on unlicensed VASPs
Internet service providers (ISPs) in the Philippines began blocking major crypto trading platforms as regulators moved to enforce local licensing rules on crypto service providers.
Personal Opinion
Site blocking via DNS lookups by PLDT and other ISPs has been happening for quite a while now.
Both the central bank - the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) - and the tax authorities share a strong incentive to keep cryptocurrencies out of the hands of ordinary Filipinos. The peso is the government’s tax token, and anything that competes with it threatens the entire banking system. Their fear is straightforward: cryptocurrencies represent an existential threat. They undermine the state’s monopoly over money and, by extension, the economy itself. You can see this in governments clear disdain for USD-backed stablecoins. Dollarisation is accelerating across entire countries at breakneck speed.
The fact that governments can simply dictate and deny access to apps and websites shows how much power they have and how willing they are to use it. It makes no sense, really, that governments would work against their own people. I suspect things will get worse before they get better. They won’t give up control without a fight!
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