The regulator announced that Gemini “operates without the necessary license and/or authority,” attracting citizen investments and issuing securities.
The Commission urged residents to stop investing with Gemini.
Under Philippine criminal law, unregistered investment platforms are punishable by up to 21 years in prison or a fine of 5 million Philippine pesos ($89810).
“This is part of the commission’s efforts to secure the investment landscape. Protecting investors is one of our main tasks.
We don’t want unregistered and unlicensed organizations operating in the Philippines,” the regulator said in an announcement.
Gemini recently launched its derivatives trading platform outside the U.S. in 30 countries, including the Philippines;
The exchange was hit hard by cryptocurrency lender Genesis Capital, which partnered with Gemini Earn, offering up to 8% of the deposit amount.
In mid-November, Genesis halted withdrawals, freezing about $900 million owed to 340,000 Gemini customers.
In addition, Gemini and Genesis were sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), alleging that the Gemini Earn program violates securities laws.
Earlier, the regulator made similar claims against credit platform BlockFi, forcing it to pay a fine of about $100 million