License-hunting Crypto.com kills Tether for Canadian users

Crypto.com is in the process of de-listing Tether (USDT) for Canadian users, effective from the end of this month.

A Crypto.com spokesperson says this decision was made “in accordance with instructions from the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) as part of our pre-registration undertaking for a restricted dealer license.” Crypto.com filed its pre-registration with the OSC at the beginning of August 2022.

Crypto.com has endured a number of major setbacks of its own in recent months. In October last year, it was forced to cut around 40% of its staff, and the company was involved in a battle against insolvency, triggered by weakness in its native Cronos token.

On December 12, 2022, the Canadian Securities Administrators issued an announcement to reiterate that crypto exchanges in the country need to be registered with the securities regulators. It also reminded everybody that, in its opinion, “stablecoins…may constitute securities.”

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Cryptocurrency exchanges that register with Canadian securities regulators will be expected to hold Canadian customer assets with an appropriate custodian and keep those assets segregated from the general corporate assets. In addition, they won’t be allowed to offer margin trading or leverage for Canadian users, and won’t be able to offer assets that are securities. This likely explains the delisting decision by Crypto.com.

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