On March 29, 2021, the Canadian Securities Administrators (the
“CSA”) and the Investment Industry
Regulatory Organization of Canada
(“IIROC” and together with the CSA,
the “Regulators”) issued Staff Notice
21-329 (the “Notice”). The Notice
provides a firm statement of the Regulator's intent to apply
Canadian securities laws to ‘crypto asset trading
platforms' (“CTPs”), and the
regulatory hurdles they will be required to jump if they are to
operate in Canada. This Notice also reinforces that the regulation
of CTPs has become a regulatory priority of Canadian securities
regulation given the recent popularity of these assets amongst
investors.
The Notice comes during a period of extended growth in the
crypto space. The direct listing of the largest cryptocurrency
exchange in the U.S. (by trading volume), Coinbase, was one of the
most highly anticipated public offerings of 2021, and the
cryptocurrency market cap recently surpassed $2 trillion USD after
doubling this
