Binance is ceasing operations in Ontario following a regulatory procedure

Following warnings from Japanese regulators on Friday, Binance issued a brief statement yesterday to announce that it will be discontinuing services to users in Ontario.

“As part of our ongoing compliance efforts, Binance has updated its Terms of Use to ensure that Ontario, Canada has become a restricted jurisdiction effective 6/26/2021 at 3:59:59 a.m. (UTC). Unfortunately, Binance is no longer able to continue serving users in Ontario. Ontario-based users should take immediate action to close all active positions by December 31, 2021, ”said a statement on their website.

Binance has not returned a request for comment prior to the time of publication.

Over the past few weeks, Ontario has become one of the most active crypto regulators. On April 19, the regulator released a new prospectus and registration requirements for crypto exchanges. Last week the Ontario Securities Commission announced that it would hold hearings to “circumvent” the Canadian cryptocurrency exchange Bybit. In addition, earlier this month the regulator took action against two Kucoin-affiliated companies:

“KuCoin operates an unregistered crypto-asset trading platform that encourages Ontario residents to use the platform and enables Ontario residents to trade crypto-asset products, which are securities and derivatives,” wrote the OSC.

Ontario regulators aren’t the only ones taking a closer look at Binance’s business in their jurisdiction, however. On Friday, Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) warned that Binance may operate in the country without a license. The warning comes after the Governor of the Bank of Japan labeled Bitcoin a “speculative asset” earlier this year.

Japanese and Canadian Binance users worried about the end of service in their countries can rest easy knowing that for some US users, trading continued on Binance’s main website for months, even after the user applied to switch to Binance US. In addition, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao admitted that Americans are finding “smart” ways to bypass geofences.