Ontario securities regulator warns against Kucoin in latest alert

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has issued another consumer alert calling out a swath of crypto firms, including Kucoin and its affiliates, for not being registered to deal in the Canadian province.

The OSC issued a similar alert earlier this month that also named Kucoin as an unregistered entity. Today’s alert names 13 firms, many of them crypto businesses, as companies that are not registered to deal or advise in securities in Ontario. The list includes subsidiaries of Kucoin, which the commission took aim at earlier when it successfully barred the firm from operating in Ontario with a courtroom win – one that also included a $1.6 million fine. 

The Kucoin case came as part of a wider crypto crackdown following a 2021 decision from regulators to treat custodial exchanges as securities exchanges regardless of whether the assets traded were securities. Since then, the OSC has gone after unregistered platforms.

As Kucoin has weathered the storm, CEO Johnny Lyu sought to dispel rumors that suggested the company might halt withdrawals. 

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