The European cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp is exiting the Canadian market and has announced that it will stop offering its services there in January 2024.
Bitstamp will leave Canada in January 2024 due to Canada’s tighter regulations for cryptocurrency businesses. Bitstamp’s U.S. CEO, Bobby Zagotta, told the media on October 10 that the exchange will stop providing services in Canada “starting January 8, 2024.”
Unknown as to the precise cause of the departure, Zagotta stated that it was “not a decision we took lightly.”
“We hope to be able to serve Canada again at some point in the future.”
Bitstamp has left Canada, joining other businesses, including Binance, Paxos, DyDx, Bybit, and OKX. The company’s CEO in the United States is Bobby Zagotta. A deadline for cryptocurrency businesses to register with the regional authorities was set by the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), which prompted the exodus.
Only 12 cryptocurrency businesses—including Coinsquare, Bitbuy, Coinberry, VirgoCX, Newton Crypto, and Fidelity Digital Asset Services—have been granted permission to provide services to Canadian customers.
Additionally, 11 businesses have submitted pre-registration undertakings as the CSA requires, including Coinbase Canada, Gemini, ByteX Financial, and Payward Canada.
In the meantime, Bitstamp is in talks to market its services with significant European financial institutions. Despite not naming the institutions, Zagotta said in a commentary that Bitstamp is in “advanced conversations with three such banks, household name banks in Europe.”
Early in August 2023, according to a report, Bitstamp started collaborating with Mike Novogratz’s cryptocurrency bank Galaxy Digital to raise money for a market expansion into Asia and the U.K.
