Ontario Securities Commission Warns Unregistered Exchanges

• The OSC imposed trading restrictions in 2021 on centralized crypto exchanges.
• Binance declared in March of this year that it will no longer accept Ontarian residents.

A total of 13 firms, including KuCoin producers MEK Global Limited (Seychelles) and PhoenixFin Pte. Ltd. (Singapore), were recently called out by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) that they “are not registered to deal or advise in securities in Ontario.”

The OSC has issued a second warning against KuCoin this month. It argues that unregistered enterprises may offer major consumer concerns and urges investors to report any contact they receive from the highlighted entities to the OSC.

Operating Without Authorization

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) won a court order in June that effectively banned KuCoin from the Ontario market and penalized it slightly more than $1.6 million for failing to register as a securities provider by April 19, 2021 deadline.

South Korean regulators shut down the KuCoin website last week for operating illegally without proper authorization. The OSC imposed trading restrictions in 2021 on centralized cryptocurrency exchanges including Poloniex, ByBit, and KuCoin because they offered derivatives products.

Binance, like KuCoin, missed the local registration deadline in April. Binance first agreed to comply with the OSC, but by December, the exchange had backtracked and told its Ontario users to cancel all open positions by the end of the year.

Binance declared in March of this year that it will no longer accept Ontarian residents as new customers. After authorities decided in 2021 to consider custodial exchanges as securities exchanges regardless of whether the assets transacted were securities, a widespread crypto crackdown ensued, including the KuCoin case. After that, the OSC began cracking down on unregistered platforms.

Recommended For You:

Crypto Exchanges in Ontario Have a $30K Annual Cap on Buying Altcoins