Gemini Canadian Users Will Be Not Supported After 2024

Key Points:

• Gemini Canadian users will be closed accounts by December 31, 2024, due to new regulatory requirements.
• Several major crypto platforms, including Binance and OKX, have already left Canada following the introduction of stricter regulations.

Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by twin brothers, will close all customer accounts in Canada before the end of 2024, Cointelegraph first reported the news.

Read more: Coinbase License In Canada Is Now Approved Amid Regulatory Compliance Push 

Gemini Canadian Users to Close Accounts Before the End of 2024

The news was communicated to Gemini Canadian users through an email notice on September 30, announcing that the account closures would be on December 31. The exchange has given its users a 90-day window to withdraw their assets from the site.

“Effective December 31, 2024, Gemini will close all customer accounts in Canada with limited exceptions. As a result, we will be closing your Gemini account,” the company wrote in the email. The decision is a significant U-turn for the platform which had once viewed Canada as a strategic market for international growth.

The discontinuation of support for Gemini Canadian users has come in the wake of regulatory changes enacted by financial regulators in the country. In February this year, Canadian securities regulators required, through a notice, that all CTPs operating in Canada had to execute a pre-registration undertaking as a legally binding commitment in order to keep offering their services.

These include a pre-registration filing, which Gemini had done in April this year, an official company spokesperson at the time underscoring how vital the Canadian market is to them.

Canada Gives Exchanges More Time for Stablecoin Compliance

Gemini’s exit continues the trend of exodus of international exchanges from Canada amid increased regulatory oversight. Just this year, between March and May, it alone saw a fall in a number of top platforms: OKX, Bybit, dYdX, Paxos, and Binance.

Apart from the general regulatory tightening, the CSA also postponed the deadline for stablecoins, also known as VRCAs-value-referenced crypto assets, to comply with new rules; such rules put a limit on the utilization of stablecoins that are not pegged to a single fiat currency, and its final enforcement is slated for April 2024.