Grygo is the chief content officer for FTF & FTF News.
During this winter of discontent and falling values for the crypto world, many are waiting for the regulators in the U.S. and elsewhere to solidify the rules of the road. Industry participants are looking to SEC Chair Gary Gensler, the CFTC, the Fed, U.S. Senators, E.U. agencies, and multinational organizations to coordinate a response or a series of responses to the realities of cryptocurrencies.
But getting regulators to agree is a timely manner is nearly impossible even though it should not be. It’s also similar to herding cats.
In the meantime, Canada is not waiting for the great convergence and is letting crypto-trading players there know what it expects of them.
Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) officials report that they are “providing an important update to crypto trading platforms that continue to operate in Canada while they take steps to comply with applicable securities legislation,” according to a recent announcement.
“CSA members now expect such platforms to provide a pre-registration undertaking to their principal regulator to continue operations while their application is reviewed,” according to the announcement. “By giving these undertakings, crypto trading platforms agree to comply with terms and conditions that address investor protection concerns and are consistent with requirements currently applicable to registered platforms.”
In fact, the Ontario Securities Commission has just “published the first pre-registration undertakings, filed by Coinsquare Capital Markets Ltd. and Crypto.com. CSA members are in discussions with other crypto trading platforms about providing pre-registration undertakings. Once provided, these undertakings will be published on the CSA’s website,” according to the announcement.
CSA members can act “if a crypto trading platform is not prepared to file an undertaking or does not abide by the terms of an undertaking,” CSA officials asset.
Officials also remind that “on March 29, 2021, the CSA and the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada published a notice outlining securities law requirements that apply to crypto trading platforms. All crypto trading platforms that are registered in Canada or that have provided a pre-registration undertaking to a CSA member are listed on the CSA’s website.”
Just to remind you, “the CSA, the council of the securities regulators of Canada’s provinces and territories, co-ordinates and harmonizes regulation for the Canadian capital markets.”
The CSA serves as “the umbrella organization of Canada’s provincial and territorial securities regulators whose objective is to improve, coordinate and harmonize regulation of the Canadian capital markets.”
To enforce securities laws and regulations, the CSA coordinates with the Ontario Securities Commission, the Alberta Securities Commission, British Columbia Securities Commission, the Manitoba Securities Commission, New Brunswick’s Financial and Consumer Services Commission, the Nova Scotia Securities Commission, the Office of the Superintendent of Securities Service Newfoundland and Labrador, Autorité des marchés financiers (Quebec), Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority of Saskatchewan, Office of the Yukon Superintendent of Securities, and the Office of the Superintendent of Securities for the Northwest Territories. The CSA Secretariat office is based in Montreal, Quebec.
As the CSA initiative advances, it may prove useful to other authorities as they struggle to come to an agreement on a useful framework for much-needed crypto regulation.
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