Dubai-headquartered cryptocurrency exchange Bybit announced on Tuesday that it will be exiting the Canadian market. The exchange cited “recent regulatory development” as the reason for its decision.
Bybit’s move comes after the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) announced in February that crypto firms planning to operate in Canada must register their compliance with a new set of regulatory guidelines.
The guidelines include requirements for anti-money laundering and terrorist financing prevention, as well as investor protection measures.
Bybit is not the first crypto exchange to exit Canada in recent months. In March, Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, also announced that it would be pulling out of the country.
Binance cited similar reasons, saying that the new regulatory guidelines “make the Canada market no longer tenable.”
The exits of Bybit and Binance are a sign of the growing regulatory scrutiny that crypto exchanges are facing around the world.
In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been cracking down on crypto exchanges, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has also issued warnings to crypto firms.
The regulatory environment for crypto exchanges is still evolving, and it remains to be seen how the industry will adapt to the new rules.
However, the exits of Bybit and Binance suggest that some exchanges may be unwilling to comply with the new regulations.
In contrast to Bybit and Binance, Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the United States, is expanding in Canada. In March, Coinbase announced that it had hired more than 200 engineers in Canada to support its global product portfolio.
Coinbase has also said that it is committed to working with Canadian regulators to ensure that it complies with the new regulations.
The different approaches taken by Bybit, Binance, and Coinbase suggest that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for crypto exchanges when it comes to regulation.
