One of the recurring questions surrounding BlockShoals Technologies Inc.‘s partnership with Binance is why the company has yet to identify the BSP-licensed Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) that will support its operations under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Strategic Sandbox (StratBox).

The absence of a public announcement has fueled speculation that the partnership is either incomplete or that a VASP has yet to be secured.

In an exclusive interview with BitDigest, however, BlockShoals Head of Legal Atty. Marie Antonette Quiogue said the partner has already been selected. What remains, she said, is the completion of mutual legal, technical, and compliance due diligence before the relationship is formally announced.

Why the Due Diligence Process Has Not Yet Ended

BlockShoals said the selected VASP is still undergoing a comprehensive review alongside Binance and the company itself before the partnership can move forward.

“As you can understand, this is a very big partnership, obligation, responsibility, right? That the parties—both parties, Binance, BlockShoals and the VASP partner—are both conducting due diligence on each other. So you have legal compliance, technical due diligence, right? On whether both are able to operate seamlessly and provide the customer with the experience that we want to give them.”

According to Quiogue, the review runs both ways. While BlockShoals and Binance are assessing the VASP’s operational and regulatory readiness, the VASP is simultaneously evaluating both companies before any agreement is finalized.

The company said the process extends beyond legal documentation to include technical integration, compliance standards, and operational readiness.

Quiogue also said the company has already disclosed the identity of the selected VASP to regulators overseeing the StratBox initiative, even though it has not yet been announced publicly.

“What we can say also is while we haven’t been able to be transparent to the public on the identity because of these processes, what I can say is we have been transparent to our regulators. And we are also allowing our regulators to review the processes before we come out to the public to announce them.”

She said both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas are already reviewing the partnership as part of the regulatory process.

Quiogue said completing the regulatory review remains BlockShoals’ immediate priority.

“Right now this is our most important obligation, to make sure that we satisfy the regulators’ requirements and once that is done, we are even more excited to announce it.”

Public disclosure, she said, will follow once the required regulatory processes have been completed.

The comments align with the company’s earlier statement that the current 90-day StratBox phase is focused on technical integration and regulatory validation rather than commercial operations.

What BlockShoals Says About Its Choice of Partner

While declining to identify the selected VASP, Quiogue said the company made the decision after evaluating the partner’s ability to support an initiative of this scale.

“I can’t say the name but what I can say is we chose them for a reason and I do believe they are capable of this big requirement that Binance and BlockShoals has.”

She said BlockShoals is confident the selected institution has the operational and regulatory capability required to support the partnership.

When the Company Expects to Name Its VASP Partner

Quiogue also indicated that the confidentiality is temporary.

“It will be disclosed, soon, hopefully.”

She did not provide a specific timeline but said the announcement will come after the remaining due diligence and regulatory review have been completed.

BlockShoals said the remaining work centers on completing mutual due diligence and securing the necessary regulatory clearance before publicly identifying its BSP-licensed VASP partner.

For now, the company maintains that the partnership is progressing according to the roadmap approved under the SEC’s StratBox framework, with the identity of the VASP to be disclosed once the review process has concluded.

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