Ontario Regulatory Agency Alleges Poloniex Violated Securities Law

The Ontario Securities Commission says the Seychelle Islands-based trading platform did not register as an exchange.

May 25, 2021 at 10:10 p.m. UTC

Updated Sep 14, 2021 at 1:01 p.m. UTC

The regulatory agency that oversees the management and enforcement of securities in Canada’s most populated province filed a Statement of Allegations against cryptocurrency exchange company Poloniex for violating Ontario securities law.

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) alleged that Poloniex, which is based in the Seychelle Islands, has not registered as a crypto asset trading platform.
On March 29, the OSC had warned exchanges that trade securities and derivatives in the province they had “to contact OSC staff or face potential regulatory action,” the OSC said in a press release.
The OSC set an April 19, 2021, deadline for exchanges to comply with the registration requirement. The agency also determined that exchanges accessible to consumers were subject to securities regulation.
More than 70 exchanges have held compliance discussions with the regulators with most of them foreign. Poloniex was not among those exchanges to register.
The OSC is collecting and assessing information from exchanges that have begun the regulatory discussions “to assess the appropriate path to registration,” including deadlines for filing “key documents,” the press release said.
The agency said it will “continue to take action” against non-compliant exchanges.

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