The Ontario Securities Commission has warned the public that cryptocurrency exchange Binance is not registered with the regulator and cannot provide services in the province.
According to a statement from the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), none of the legal entities in the Binance group of companies are incorporated under Ontario securities laws. This means that the exchange is not authorized to offer trading in financial derivatives or securities to individuals or organizations located in the province.
Binance previously said that as of December 31, 2021, Ontarians will no longer be able to make transactions on the exchange. However, local users later received a message from Binance that it had begun partnering with Canadian regulators and registered with the Financial Transaction Analysis and Reporting Center of Canada (FINTRAC), allowing it to resume operations.
However, OSC claims it has not received any notifications from Binance about this, and an exchange cancellation of its obligations on its own is absolutely unacceptable. The commission said that Ontario has six registered platforms for trading cryptoassets, and the agency is open to dialogue with firms that have received a warning about the lack of registration.
At the same time, cryptocurrency platforms registered with regulatory authorities, or about to apply for registration, should take into account that, by distorting their registration status, they raise doubts about the advisability of issuing a license to them, the OSC warned. The agency recommends that investors check the registration status of any person or company involved in investing or trading cryptoassets on the OSC’s official website or through the Commission’s contact center.
Similar notices regarding Binance were published by regulators of South Africa, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Japan. However, this week, Binance received approval from the Bahrain Central Bank to operate in the kingdom as a virtual asset service provider. Bahrain’s Central Bank became the first regulator in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to issue such a permit to Binance.
