Ontario Securities Commission has won more courtroom victories against unregistered crypto-exchanges.
Two legal proceedings were concluded on June 21st and 22 by the OSC. Kucoin was barred from Ontario. Bybit settled the matter and has promised to work with the OSC in order to register its platform.
Kucoin will be fined CAD$2,096,550.35 (USD$1,621,597.83) as part of these decisions. Bybit appears to have already paid USD$1,909 603.13 (CAD$2,468,910) of its proceeds to regulator. The regulator is fining Kucoin another CAD$10,000 (USD$7.734.60) for its investigation.
The OSC stated in its announcement that “Unlike KuCoin”, Bybit responded to the OSC’s enforcement action, maintained an Open Dialog, provided requested information and committed to participating in registration discussions.”
This is the latest in a series of actions that the OSC has taken to stop crypto exchanges after a decision by the Canadian Securities Administrators in early 2021 to treat custodial trades as securities exchanges, regardless of whether cryptocurrencies themselves are securities. The first enforcement action against Poloniex was taken in early 2021.
Although the OSC is a provincial regulator in Canada, it does not have a federal counterpart to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The OSC is the most important regulator in Canada when it comes to enforcing CSA’s decisions. It oversees Canada’s largest securities market.
