Ontario securities regulator slams Binance after cryptocurrency exchange claims it can continue to operate there

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Binance users in Canada are getting mixed signals as to whether or not the exchange can work in the country.

On December 29, Binance users in the province of Ontario began reporting the updates they had received from the exchange. The updates, which Binance representatives have confirmed to be genuine to The Block, indicate that they no longer need to close accounts by the end of December.

After being contacted by The Block regarding these updates, the Ontario Securities Commission issued a statement saying unequivocally, “Binance is not registered in Ontario.

“This is unacceptable,” the announcement continues. “No entity of the Binance group of companies holds any form of securities registration in Ontario.”

Binance based its statement on its recent registration as a money services company with Canada’s anti-money laundering authority, FinTrac. FinTrac is a federal MSB regulator unlike the United States where most crypto exchanges operate on the basis of MSB registrations with various state supervisors.

In its announcement, Binance referred to “continued and positive cooperation with Canadian regulators.” The company further stated that its MSB license “allows us to continue to operate in Canada and resume operations in Ontario while we pursue full registration.”

The meaning of “complete recording” was not clear at the time. A Binance representative told The Block that “we are applying to IIROC to become a securities and derivatives dealer in Canada.” IIROC is the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, a self-regulatory organization.

Binance had taken action to end access in Ontario in June this year, in response to a pan-Canadian policy of restricting crypto trading to exchanges registered with securities authorities.

The Canadian Securities Administrators, which brings together provincial securities regulators, the largest of which is the Ontario Securities Commission, began cracking down on custodial stock exchanges earlier this year. The principle of operation is that custody accounts represent securities deals with crypto exchanges, even though the cryptocurrencies involved are not necessarily securities.

A similar controversy unfolded this month in Singapore. In this region, Binance had operated both through its global exchange and through a subsidiary of Binance Singapore, neither of which had the necessary registrations to offer crypto trading.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All rights reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial or other advice.

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