Binance Leaving Canada, Market ‘No Longer Tenable’ for Exchange

Binance chose to exit the country because of new stablecoin guidance and crypto exchange investor limits

May 12, 2023 03:42 pm

Iryna Budanova/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

Binance announced on Friday that it would be withdrawing from the Canadian market.

In its statement on Twitter, Binance referenced Canada’s new stablecoin guidance and investor limits for crypto exchanges as two reasons why it’s departing the country.

“Binance will be joining other prominent crypto businesses in proactively withdrawing from the Canadian marketplace,” the statement said. “Unfortunately, new guidance related to stablecoins and investor limits provided to crypto exchanges makes the Canada market no longer tenable for Binance at this time.”

Other crypto companies that have left Canada include OKX, Paxos, dYdX, all of them citing the regulatory environment.

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Bittrex pulled out of Canada in July of last year, citing regulation as the main reason.

Binance’s exit comes as the Canadian Securities Administrators forced crypto asset trading platforms to register with them by March 23. Failure to meet “pre registration requirements” by the deadline meant crypto trading firms had to cease operations.

Additionally, exchanges were told by the Canadian agency to commit to segregation in crypto custody, maintain a chief compliance officer, while also halting the sale and holding of stablecoins.

Binance said that it “put off the decision” as long as it could but came to the conclusion that there was no avenue forward.

The tweet said that Binance is confident that it will “someday return to the market when Canadian users once again have the freedom to access a broader suite of digital assets.”

Remaining Binance customers in Canada will receive “an email with comprehensive information on how this will impact their accounts going forward.”

When reached for comment, Binance referred back to its original tweet.

Updated May 12, 2023 at 5:24 pm ET: Added response from Binance.

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