Ontario Securities Commission Issues Warns Against 13 Unregistered Crypto Firms

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has issued 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 alert names 13 firms, including PhenoFX, Freedom Finances, Virtual-FXtrade Limited, Smart Trade Group, CAPFM, GMGroup.pro, Crestswiftrade.com, trustfxcores / TrustfxCores.com, FX-BTC Trade, and Kucoin. The commission took aim at Kucoin 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.

OSC told investors that they should check the registration of any person or business trying to sell an investment or give investment advice. This can be done by visiting the Check Before You Invest or the Registered crypto asset trading platforms pages on the OSC website.

Source: The Block