CLEARER and more consistent regulations are now the main hurdle to broader institutional adoption of digital assets, according to Binance Philippines.
Jen Bilango, Binance Philippines general manager, said greater regulatory certainty was needed by financial institutions before they could participate in the digital asset market at scale.
"The biggest regulatory gap is no longer whether digital assets should be regulated, but whether the rules are clear and compatible enough for institutions to operate with confidence," she told The Manila Times.
Clarity will be required throughout the lifecycle of digital assets, including their classification, issuance, custody, trading, settlement, accounting, taxation and redemption, Bilango added.
She said that differences in regulatory frameworks across jurisdictions had made cross-border participation more complex and costly for institutional investors.
The industry does not necessarily need identical regulations across markets but will benefit from greater alignment on key objectives, such as market integrity, consumer protection, governance, cybersecurity and anti-money laundering controls, Bilango continued.
"When institutions can understand the risks, responsibilities and regulatory treatment upfront, adoption can move from experimentation to scale," she said.
Binance has returned to the Philippines through BlockShoals Technologies Inc., a Securities and Exchange Commission-approved crypto asset intermediary that makes Binance's products and services available locally under the regulator's Strategic Sandbox (StratBox) framework.
BlockShoals recently joined FinTech Alliance PH as part of its efforts to promote a compliance-focused approach to digital assets.
Bilango said Binance's tie-up with BlockShoals was designed to address concerns over money laundering, market surveillance and fraud detection through identity verification, customer risk assessment, sanctions and politically exposed person screening, enhanced due diligence for higher-risk customers, blockchain analytics, transaction monitoring and trading surveillance.
Under the collaboration, Bilango said BlockShoals provides the locally accountable framework under SEC supervision while Binance contributes blockchain intelligence and operational experience.
She added that the StratBox framework allowed regulators to observe how compliance controls work in practice and refine safeguards during the testing and integration period.
Bilango acknowledged that while no compliance framework could completely eliminate financial crime, the goal is to identify suspicious activity early on, connect blockchain and trading data, and ensure that cases are acted upon with clear regulatory accountability.