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ARTICLE · 12 MARCH 2015

AMF Now Requires Quebec Virtual Currency ATMs And Trading Platforms To Be Licensed

McCarthy Tétrault
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In Quebec, a business that operates a virtual currency automated teller machine, such as a bitcoin ATM, or that provides a platform for trading virtual currencies, will now be required to obtain a license under the Money-Services Businesses Act (the "Act").

CanadaFinance and Banking
Claire Gowdy
Claire Gowdy
Ana Badour
Ana Badour
Marjolaine Hemond Hotte
Marjolaine Hemond Hotte
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In Quebec, a business that operates a virtual currency automated teller machine, such as a bitcoin ATM, or that provides a platform for trading virtual currencies, will now be required to obtain a license under the Money-Services Businesses Act (the "Act"). On February 12th, 2015, the Autorité des marchés financiers (the "AMF") announced this change in a news release and published amendments to the Policy Statement to the Act, which clarified that "making available to the public a means of purchasing, with cash, virtual money from an automated distributor, without the intervention of a natural person" constitutes operating an automated teller machine for the purposes of the Act.

In the past year, bitcoin ATMs have been rapidly popping up all over the province, and especially in Montreal. The bitcoin ATM locator website http://coinatmradar.com/ currently reports 21 such ATM's in operation in the province (18 in Montreal), compared with only one ATM operating in

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