Ontario Securities Commission Goes After ByBit Crypto Exchange

The Ontario Securities Commission goes after the ByBit crypto exchange as one of the world’s top five exchanges with $53 billion in trading volume, got in hot waters with the regulators so let’s read more in our latest cryptocurrency news.

The OSC says that it reached out to the exchange back in March but heard nothing from them. ByBit is one of the world’s top five exchanges with $53 billion in trading volume over the past week but it now got into trouble with the regulators along with other prominent crypto trading platforms. The Ontario Securities Commission charged the company with “operating an unregistered crypto asset trading platform” and further encouraging Ontarians to use the platform as well as allowing the residents to trade assets that are actually securities and derivatives.

According to the OSC, it requested that ByBit contact it regarding how to make the exchange compliant with the Ontario securities law but did not receive a reply and it is now added the exchange to the investors warning list after setting a hearing date of July 15. At the hearing, the commission will consider OSC staff recommendations and will urge ByBit to cease securities trading and be banned from acquiring securities permanently or for a period that will be specified by the Commission. The staff has recommended an administrative penalty as well of up to $1 million for each branch of Ontario securities law.

Earlier this month, the regulator took similar enforcement action against KuCoin. Last month, the OSC alleged that Poloniex didn’t follow the registration process as well and its argument is mostly the same in each instance which is that the exchange offers securities and derivatives to Ontario residents which means they will have to comply with the securities laws of the province. Securities are financial instruments that people can buy and trade for the purpose of turning a profit. Derivatives are a type of security that gets value from an underlying asset which can be a security. For example, commodity futures and BTC futures contracts are derivatives and allow someone to set a buy/sell price for the assets in advance, almost like gambling on how much the price of the asset will increase or decrease.

it is the main investor in BitDAO that is backed by Peter Thiel which announced a week ago that it had taken in $230 million to provide grants, technical expertise, and liquidity to decentralized finance projects but it also promised a cut of the futures contract trading to BitDAO.