Canada’s Coinberry Gets Securities Regulatory Greenlight

Toronto-based Coinberry announced today that it has become a registered securities dealer by the Ontario Securities Commission, and with this provincial registration, national registration from the Canadian Securities Association. 

This makes Coinberry the second crypto platform to attain registration, after Wealthsimple — an online stock broker and neobank that recently expanded into crypto.   

“Coinberry has been working hard with our partners at DLA Piper to ensure that we meet the regulatory requirements that have been presented,” CEO Andrei Poliakov said in a statement. “Canadians have been seeking a safe, trustworthy, and regulated platform to acquire crypto assets for far too long. We are finally thrilled to offer them one.”

In a prior interview, Poliakov said Coinberry had spent nearly two years working with regulators to ensure the trading platform is fully regulatory compliant.

In Canada, securities registration is a provincial matter. As Ontario is the country’s largest province, and home to the financial capital of Toronto, the OSC is the nation’s most influential regulator. Both liberal and conservative governments have been in favor of a national regulator akin to the SEC, though the country’s courts have decided that securities are squarely in the purview of the Provinces squashing this move for now. 

But until then, Canada has the Canadian Securities Administrators, a nationwide alliance of provincial securities regulators that acts as a vehicle for national regulation and harmonization. Coinberry has also been approved for nationwide registration via the CSA, allowing it to market itself to Canadians nationwide. 
Newton, Coinsquare and NDAX, three of the other large exchanges in the country, have not been granted registration by the OSC or CSA.

In 2020, Coinsquare was disciplined by the OSC for wash trading, a practice where exchange volume is inflated via fake liquidity. According to a statement at the time from the OSC, Coinsquare was manipulating 90% of the reported trading volume on its platform. As a result, its founder and CEO resigned from the company and Coinsquare was forced to pay $2.2 million in penalties.

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