Bitfinex, the 8th largest crypto exchange by trading volume, published a notice on Jan. 14 for Ontario (Canada). The team said that from March 1, 2022 services will become unavailable for Ontario customers.
Bitfinex has started some actions. Accounts that have no balances on the market will be shut down. Peer-to-Peer financing markets become unavailable for customers who don’t have open positions. This also applies to margin positions and BitFinex Borrow. From March 1, 2022, all services will be closed for Ontario clients. Therefore, customers need to withdraw holdings from the platform.
Canadian regulators require exchanges to get listed as securities platforms.
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As per the warning published by the Ontario Securities Commision released in March 2021, all crypto trading platforms needed to begin discussions to be compliant with the securities law by April 2021. Otherwise, they will face regulatory action.
In August, the regulator alleged the company standing behind the development of the exchange OKEx, saying that the platform offers crypto products that are securities and derivatives, therefore subject to the securities law of Ontario.