Like Japan, and more recently Australia, the Philippines is reportedly planning to regulate Bitcoin exchanges.

The Philippines’ central bank has given the green light to two Bitcoin exchanges to operate as part of broader efforts to regulate the fast-growing but potentially risky crypto-currency, according to reports in the national media.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas approved the exchanges recently, according to its governor, Nestor Espenilla Jr, at a financial technology conference. He added: “They are local based, but they have international roots. That is the importance of putting them under the regulatory framework. We are moving to regulate them.”

Bitcoin was created in 2009 by an unidentified person or group operating under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. In the wake of the financial tsunami of 2008, so-called ‘cypherpunks’ sought to create a decentralised payment system independent of the world’s distrusted central banks and free of regulatory burdens. A Bitcoin exchange is a digital marketplace where traders and consumers can exchange fiat currencies for Bitcoin.

Now, many countries across the world – such as Australia and Ukraine – are planning to regulate Bitcoin (and crypto-currencies more generally) to stop them from being used to launder money and fund terrorism and other illicit activities.