Electronic money institutions and banks should scrutinize more closely transactions involving cryptocurrencies from play-to-earn video games, according to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).
In a Viber message shared by BusinessWorld, AMLC Executive Director Mel Georgie B. Racela said that these firms should “conduct customer due diligence,” and file suspicious transaction reports should they suspect any game token transactions with potential links to dirty money.
The advice from the government watchdog comes amid the recent Axie Infinity heist, deemed the largest in cryptocurrency history.
The incident hasn’t apparently put off gamers from engaging in play-to-earn games despite it being an indication of the lack of sufficient cybersecurity in decentralized blockchain networks, according to financial services industry manager Swarup Gupta of The Economist Intelligence Unit in an email to BusinessWorld.
The aforementioned NFT game by Sky Mavis has remained popular as it allows players to earn income, a godsend for those whose jobs were affected by the pandemic. As of February 2022, 35 percent of the game’s traffic of daily active users comes from the Philippines.