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The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) in Canada has issued another consumer alert warning residents of unregistered crypto platforms, including three KuCoin-related companies.
The OSC’s latest warning is part of a series of actions the regulator has taken in order to protect investors from risks associated with digital assets.
The OSC issues investors with warnings about harmful activities in the securities market from time to time. These warnings are intended to educate the public about specific types of fraud or other illegal activity so that investors can make informed decisions about where they choose to invest their money.
The commission issued a similar warning last month, alleging that is an unregistered organization. Today’s alert names 13, many of them crypto companies that are not permitted to trade or advise in securities in Ontario.
The list includes subsidiaries of KuCoin, which the commission successfully barred from operating in Ontario with a courtroom win.
The current state of cryptocurrency in Canada
In Canada, cryptocurrency has been under much scrutiny lately. And the government has been trying to work out how to best regulate it. The number of owners has reportedly increased from 5% in 2020 to 13% in 2021, according to a recent Bank of Canada report
The average amount of Bitcoin held was $500, with most investors using it for speculation due to its high volatility, which makes it unsuitable as a payment method.
Despite the excitement, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) has now mandated that all cryptocurrency trading platforms in Canada to certain standards before doing business.
Following the OSC’s first set of pre-registration requirements for cryptocurrency asset trading platforms, CRYPTO.COM completed a pre-registration agreement, making it the first cryptocurrency exchange to operate under this legislation.
Crypto.com cleared to operate in Canada
OSC-approved crypto products will be available on the Canadian cryptocurrency platform Crypto.com, becoming the first exchange to do so.
The Pre-Registration Undertaking acknowledges Crypto.com’s compliance with all Canadian regulations set by the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Center of Canada (FINTRAC) and the Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF) in Quebec.
