The Philippine SEC is moving from caution to active experimentation on tokenization, saying the country’s existing securities laws can handle tokenized assets and that such products could reshape how securities are issued and traded.
At Philippine Blockchain Week 2026, SEC Commissioner Rogelio Quevedo said regulators are now comfortable supervising tokenized offerings within the current legal framework. He argued tokenization can broaden capital-market activity, spur financial innovation and create new, regulated opportunities for investors — including overseas Filipino workers who often have capital but limited access to safe investment channels.
That confidence underpins an expanded use of StratBox, the SEC’s regulatory sandbox. StratBox lets fintechs test new products and business models under regulator supervision, with temporary regulatory modifications or waivers available on a case-by-case basis. The SEC stresses that sandbox participation does not exempt firms from existing laws and cannot be used to sidestep obligations.
In November 2025 the SEC disclosed four firms had been admitted into StratBox. Among them: one project testing tokenized real estate, two firms piloting products to provide access to U.S. equities, and BlockShoals Technologies, which received in-principle approval to trial crypto-related products and services in the sandbox.
Quevedo also described a beefed-up enforcement posture as digital-asset activity grows. The SEC is deploying AI tools to detect investment scams and coordinating with major platforms such as Google and TikTok to remove illegal offerings aimed at Filipino investors.
Meanwhile, the central bank — Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) — has tightened rules for virtual asset service providers. New guidance requires VASPs to perform more extensive due diligence before listing tokens, assessing factors such as issuer background, market maturity, use case, transparency and security standards, liquidity and legal compliance. Licensing remains a focus: reporting from BitPinas notes that neither Binance nor BlockShoals currently hold a BSP VASP license, which is required to offer crypto payment and transaction services in the Philippines.
Taken together, regulators are signalling an appetite to foster innovation while shoring up investor protections: a sandbox-led approach to test tokenized products, paired with stricter listing and licensing standards and stronger enforcement tools.
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