Pamela Draper, president and CEO of crypto platform Bitvo, has weighed in on firms escaping the Canadian market amid the regulatory environment.
Speaking to Cointelegraph at the Collision Conference in Toronto on June 29, Draper said despite crypto companies like Binance, dYdX, and Bybit announcing their departure from Canada in 2023, the country was “one of the few jurisdictions where there’s actually a regulatory regime in place that you can follow.” She cited cases in the United States, where Binance and Coinbase both face lawsuits from the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission.
“At least in Canada you have a framework you can follow where you know the guidelines,” said Draper. “You may not necessarily agree with every single aspect of it, but you know the sandbox.” She added that certain firms with operations in other countries may not be willing to “make the investment” in Canada amid the regulatory framework. Canadian regulatorsgiving crypto firms two years to register as an “investment dealer” or “regulated marketplace”, with the expectation they would be in compliance in 2023.
“It’s a lot of work and money to comply with the regime in terms of the staff that you need to set up, the infrastructure that you need to set up, the legal fees that you need to work through the process to to get your license with the securities commission.”as part of its move into Canada. The deal fell apart in November when FTX declared bankruptcy and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was subsequently arrested in the Bahamas.