The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has published a consumer protection alert listing several financial firms operating in the Canadian province without the required licenses. The list included some digital asset firms, the most prominent being the KuCoin exchange.
The list, which was published this week, includes PhenoFX, FX-BTC Trade, and Crestswiftrade.com, all offering digital asset trading in some capacity.
The listed platforms claim to offer their users an easy way to trade over 100 assets, mine BTC, dabble in the foreign exchange market, trade commodities and options, and more.
However, as the OSC noted in its warning, none of them have been licensed to serve investors in Canada’s most populous province. The regulator called on any residents who have been approached by any of the platforms to contact it.
In addition, the OSC urged investors to refer to its regularly updated list of digital asset companies that are licensed to operate in the province. This list includes Coinberry and Wealthsimple, the first two exchanges to receive a license to operate in the province. Others are Netcoins, which listed BSV two years ago, Fidelity Clearing Canada, VirgoCX, Bitvo Inc., and CoinSmart.
For KuCoin, this isn’t its first brush with the regulator. As CoinGeek reported a month ago, the OSC banned the exchange from operating in Ontario while slapping ByBit with a $1.9 million fine.
While the regulator had been going after the two exchanges for similar violations, it was more lenient with ByBit as the exchange had been cooperative. KuCoin, according to the regulator’s press release, had refused to supply some of the documents that the OSC requested.
Despite the blow, KuCoin is marching ahead and delving into new horizons beyond its exchange business, including the metaverse. As Lou Yu, the head of KuCoin Labs, which is the exchange’s investment arm, told CoinGeek recently, the metaverse is the place to be for the next generation of Internet entrepreneurs.
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