Crypto.com, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, will cease operations with stablecoin USDT for Canadian users on January 31st. Representatives of the trading platform stated this in an email to their customers.
Users in Canada who want to keep their USDT coins must withdraw them from the exchange before the end of the current month. In February, the remaining assets in the account will be converted into the second largest stablecoin USDC from Circle.
A Reddit user provided the email from Crypto.com.
In response to the FTX bankruptcy, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) increased its oversight over centralized exchanges, which played a role in Crypto.com's decision. However, a bigger factor in this is that licensed cryptocurrency exchanges operating in Canada are no longer allowed to use USDT as payment, as ordered by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC). The regulator took this action in 2021, after the stablecoin was accused of market manipulation. Tether stablecoin is one of the few digital assets that Canadian regulators have taken a dislike to.
Therefore, since Crypto.com wants to obtain a pre-registration and a new trading license in Canada, the exchange had to remove USDT from the list of assets available to clients in that country. This is stated in the electronic user appeal as well.
The re-licensing procedure is required to eliminate marketplaces that may be harmful to users. As a result, the Binance exchange left Ontario last year because it did not want to be subject to Canadian regulatory checks and potential sanctions.
The Ontario Securities Commission has also warned other cryptocurrency platforms that they must register and obtain a license in order to avoid retaliation, including legal action. In particular, this process requires the delisting of USDT from the list of assets. Exchanges like Coinberry and Wealthsimple agreed to this in 2021.
USDT is the most popular stablecoin today, with a market capitalization of up to $66 billion. USDC, which has a market cap of $44 billion, is the stablecoin's main rival. Tether stablecoin is a key instrument in the cryptocurrency market, ranking among the top three alongside BTC and ETH. However, there are numerous disputes and negative rumors surrounding the coin's supply and reserves.
