Canadian regulators have issued new guidance determining when current securities legislation applies to operations conducted by cryptocurrency exchanges. According to the clarifications in the document, many domestic and foreign entities serving Canadian users, for example those that provide custodial services, will have to abide by the country’s securities laws and act like securities dealers.
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CSA Tries to Explain When Cryptos Are Securities
The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), a council of the regulatory bodies of Canada’s provinces and territories, published on Thursday Staff Notice 21-327 Guidance on the Application of Securities Legislation to Entities Facilitating the Trading of Crypto Assets. The legal interpretation, which comes after a consultation paper proposed a framework for crypto asset trading platforms in March, is supposed to help operators identify situations where Canadian securities laws may or may not apply to their activities.
The CSA explains that in certain cases crypto assets clearly represent securities. A tokenized security, for instance, carries rights that are traditionally attached to common shares such as voting rights and rights to receive dividends, the organization notes. A crypto asset can also be a derivative, the CSA remarks, like when a token provides an option to acquire an asset in the future. The regulator points out:
Securities legislation may apply to platforms that facilitate the buying and selling of crypto assets that are commodities, because the user’s contractual right to the crypto asset may itself constitute a derivative, a security or both.
The agency notes that the relevant determination will depend on the specifics, including “the obligations and intention to provide immediate delivery of the crypto asset.” Trading platforms would not be subject
