The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a public investor alert naming dYdX and six other crypto trading platforms as unauthorized, warning Filipinos not to invest in these services.
The advisory, published Tuesday, April 22, 2026, carries serious teeth: individuals caught promoting any of the listed platforms locally could face criminal charges, fines of up to 5 million Philippine pesos, roughly $89,000, or imprisonment of up to 21 years.
Seven platforms named, none registered under CASP rules
In a Facebook post, the Philippine SEC publicly named dYdX, Aevo, gTrade, Pacifica, Orderly, Deriv, and Ostium. According to the regulator, these platforms appear to be soliciting investments from Philippine residents in exchange for promised returns, profits, or interest, the hallmarks of an investment product that requires local authorization.
None of the seven hold registration or a license under the country’s Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) framework, which has been in force since July 2025 under SEC Memorandum Circulars No. 4 and 5.
Your completely free resource hub designed to boost your knowledge of cryptocurrencies
That framework requires any firm offering crypto-related services to Filipinos to register as a domestic entity, maintain a minimum paid-up capital of 100 million Philippine pesos (about $1.8 million), establish a physical office in the country, and file regular reports with the SEC and the Anti-Money Laundering Council.
dYdX under the spotlight, and not for the first time
Among the seven flagged platforms, dYdX carries the highest profile. A decentralized exchange (DEX) made for perpetual futures trading that has recorded a lifetime trading volume of over $1.52 trillion. The Foundation, which maintains the protocol, is registered in Zug, Switzerland, and there is no local presence in the Philippines.
The platform has, however, a history of security breaches that have got the whole crypto world’s attention. In November 2023, a hack targeting dYdX led to an exploit of about $9 million from the protocol. The exchange, however, identified the hacker through forensic contractors and passed on the findings to law enforcement.
In July 2024, the dYdX v3 website was compromised after attackers social-engineered Squarespace’s customer support team, hijacked the domain’s DNS settings, and deployed a counterfeit site prompting users to approve wallet-draining transactions. Two users lost a combined $31,000 before the domain was recovered.
In February 2026, cybersecurity analysts at Socket discovered that official dYdX developer packages had been tampered with. As a result, a wallet seed-phrase stealer and a remote access trojan (RAT) was added to the packages. Developers use these packages to interact with the dYdX v4 protocol. Impacted users were told to isolate machines and transfer funds urgently.
The Philippine SEC’s advisory cites none of these incidents as grounds for the flagging. The sole basis is the absence of registration under local CASP rules.
Part of a sustained enforcement campaign
Tuesday’s action is the latest in a multi-year campaign by Philippine regulators against crypto platforms that refuse or fail to seek local authorization. In 2024, the SEC moved to block Binance after the exchange missed a compliance deadline, with app stores directed to remove the platform for Philippine users.
In August 2025, a different advisory advised against using platforms such as OKX, Bybit, KuCoin, Kraken. Philippine internet service providers began blocking access to more than 50 exchanges, such as Coinbase and Gemini, in December 2025 at the request of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
The SEC has framed every one of these actions through the lens of investor protection. Unregistered platforms, it argues, expose Filipino users to total loss of funds, fraud, market manipulation, and identity theft, while also undermining the country’s anti-money laundering safeguards, a concern the regulator has directly tied to maintaining the Philippines’ standing with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Compliant players fill the gap as unlicensed operators exit
While enforcement has tightened, locally compliant platforms have been expanding their products. In 2025, PDAX partners with Toku allowing stablecoin salary payouts for Filipino workers.
GoTyme, a digital bank, has launched cryptocurrency services in collaboration with Alpaca that allow clients to buy and hold crypto tokens in a regulated banking application.
The trend seems similar across Southeast Asia with Thailand reportedly moving to limit OKX and Bybit. Indonesia has also banned unlicensed foreign platforms, while a proposal in Cambodia would impose severe prison terms for crypto scams.
What happens next
Public advisories from the Philippine SEC do not immediately halt platform operations, but they formally alert investors that a service is unsafe and potentially fraudulent. If flagged entities continue operating, the Commission can escalate to Cease-and-Desist Orders and pursue criminal referrals.
None of the seven named platforms had issued a public statement in response to the advisory at the time of publication. Filipino users currently on any of the listed platforms have no legal recourse under Philippine law in the event of a dispute or loss.
