Binance to cease operations in Ontario following regulatory crackdown

On the tails of a warning from Japanese regulators on Friday, Binance has announced in a short statement yesterday that it will cease providing services to users located in Ontario. 

“As part of our continuing compliance efforts, Binance has updated its Terms of Use to provide that Ontario (Canada) has become a restricted jurisdiction, effective 2021-06-26 at 3:59:59 AM (UTC). Regrettably, Binance can no longer continue to service Ontario-based users. Ontario-based users are advised to take immediate measures to close out all active positions by December 31, 2021,” a statement on their website reads.

Binance did not return a request for comment by publication time. 

In recent weeks Ontario has emerged as one of the most aggressive cryptocurrency regulators. On April 19th, the regulator introduced new prospectus and registration requirements for cryptocurrency exchanges. Last week The Ontario Securities Commission announced it would be holding hearings regarding cryptocurrency exchange Bybit “flouting” Canadian law. Additionally, the regulator took steps against two companies associated with Kucoin earlier in the month:

“KuCoin is operating an unregistered crypto asset trading platform, encouraging Ontarians to use the platform, and allowing Ontario residents to trade crypto asset products that are securities and derivatives,” the OSC wrote.

Ontario regulators arn’t the only ones who have taken a closer look at Binance’s activities within their jurisdiction, however. On Friday, the Financial Services Agency (FSA) of Japan warned that Binance may be operating in the country without a license. The warning comes on the back of the governor of the Bank of Japan slamming Bitcoin as a “speculative asset” earlier in the year.

Japanese and Canadian Binance users worried about service ending in their countries might rest easier knowing that trading for some American users persisted for months on the main Binance site even after requests for users to migrate to Binance US. Additionally, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has admitted that Americans find “intelligent” ways to circumvent the geofence.