The panel said Bybit exposes local investors to “unacceptable risks and creates an unbalanced competitive environment in the field of crypto-asset trading platforms.”
A notice was issued by the Ontario Securities Commission indicating that it will hold a hearing on Bybit on cryptocurrency exchanges that allegedly “circumvented” Canadian securities laws.
In a Monday notice from the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), the regulator claimed that Bybit had “failed to comply with the registration and prospectus requirements under the Ontario Securities Act,” regardless of OSC’s announcement of cryptocurrency trading operations in the province on April 19 The deadline.
Consequently, the panel will start a hearing on July 15 to resolve the matter. OSC stated:
“Crypto trading platforms have a process to align their operations with Ontario’s values. Organizations like Bybit violated this compliance process, exposing Ontario investors to unacceptable risks and in crypto assets occupies an unbalanced competitive environment trading platform sector.”
The regulator said that Bybit has not yet tabled a brochure for operating legally in Canada to OSC, and the trade provides tools and instruments to investors who represent securities and derivatives under the Canadian institutional securities laws.
Such transactions breach some of Ontario’s securities laws and involve activities that “contravene the public interest”
The hearing proposed for July will address the solutions, including the removal of Bybit from the list within a certain period of time, and a “permanent ban on the acquisition of securities.”
OSC also proposes to impose a fine of up to $1 million for each suspected securities law violation. In a separate statement by OSC in the past month, the committee made similar allegations against cryptocurrency exchanges KuCoin and Polo Digital Assets. Poloniex matrix.
In both cases, OSC claimed that the exchange did not contact the securities regulator before the April 19 deadline. Ontario, Canada has become the home of many crypto companies, and they are pushing for new restrictions on local regulations.
In February of this year, the Toronto-based Purpose Investment Company launched the first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in North America. Since then, the asset under management of the fund has exceeded US$880 million. Evolve Funds Group and Ninepoint Partners have also received regulatory approval for crypto ETFs.