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Canadian Regulator Charges Coinsquare Executives For Crypto Market Manipulation

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), Canada’s largest market regulator, has settled charges with Coinsquare cryptocurrency exchange. The executives of the Toronto-based crypto exchange firm have not only agreed to step aside from the firm but also to pay administrative penalties as part of an agreement with the regulator. The commission found the cryptocurrency exchange had engaged in market manipulation, which is a violation of the Ontario Securities law.

Weird Crypto Market Cybercrime

In a hearing held on July 21, the Ontario Securities Commission approved a settlement reached between the regulator and Coinsquare. As part of the settlement, Coinsquare president Virgile Rostand and CEO Cole Diamond admitted to authorizing market manipulation through reporting of inflated trading volumes. Furthermore, Diamond admitted to have retaliated against an internal whistleblower who reportedly raised several concerns about the practice.

As a result, Rostand and Diamond agreed to resign from their positions and paid penalties of $900,000 and $1 million respectively, the regulator said.

Rostand and Diamond have also been banned from acting as directors and registrants for three years. This means that they cannot influence the management of the company for the stated period. Felix Mazer, Coinsquare’s Chief Compliance Officer, also was accused of failing to fulfil the duties of his crucial role as the CCO. As part of the agreement, Mazer has also resigned from his position and paid $50,000 to the regulator. Mazer has also been banned from acting as an officer of a registrant or a direction for one year.

As a company, Coinsquare is also required to pay $200,000.

The regulator has ordered Coinsquare to obtain new management and seek compliance with the IIROC (Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada) and other regulations. The crypto company also has been ordered to create an independent whistleblower program, an independent board of directors, and implement processes to ensure its trading platform aligns with securities laws.

According to the regulator, Coinsquare engaged in market manipulation by inflating 90% of its trading volumes with fake trades between 2018 July and 2019 December.

The OSC’s director of enforcement, Jeff Kehoe, said that the settlement is a significant milestone as it marks the first time a firm has been disciplined under 2016 laws barring retaliation against a whistleblower.

Consequences of Crypto Market Manipulation

Instances of the crypto market being manipulated have existed for a long time now. However, market manipulation is not just a concern with the cryptocurrency market. Traditional financial also suffers from the problem. But because of the liquidity of the traditional financial market, it is harder and more difficult to spot market manipulations. Traditional financial markets are much more heavily regulated than the cryptocurrency markets. While in recent years, market manipulations have slowed in the crypto industry when compared to earlier days, there is still clear evidence of the problem. The crypto space, which is still largely unregulated, suffers a lot. There are a lot of losers, and very few winners from this situation and impacts are highly detrimental to the cryptocurrency industry.

Ontario Securities Commission Criticizes Binance for Incomplete Registration

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) of Canada stated that Binance has not yet obtained the legal operating qualifications for the province of Ontario.

In a statement on its website on Thursday, OSC condemned Binance for telling users on its platform that they have succeeded in continuing to operate in Ontario, but they have not yet registered under Ontario’s securities laws.

In the official statement issued by OSC, it read that:

“This is unacceptable. Binance has issued a notice to users, without any notification to the OSC.”

On Wednesday, Binance sent a memo to its users stating that the company has cooperated with regulators to ensure continued operations and that users in Ontario do not need to close their accounts before December 31, 2021.

Ontario is Canada’s most populous province. OSC stated in its statement that Binance “has no right to provide derivatives or securities transactions to individuals or companies in Canada’s most populous province” as Binance Group did not conduct any form of securities registration in Ontario, and this move is not compliant.

The committee listed the six encryption platforms that have been registered with OSC this year as follows:

Weathsimple

June 18

Coinberry

Aug. 19

Netcoins

Sept. 29

Coinsmart

Oct. 21

Fidelity

Nov. 16

Bitbuy

Nov. 15

The exchange stated on Thursday that there was “misinformation” and explained the incident:

“We did not meet directly with the Ontario Securities Commission about our intentions, which was clearly an error that we are correcting. We will provide updated guidance to users as soon as possible.”

Binance has promised OSC to ensure that no new transactions will be made on its platform after December 31.

Crypto Exchange Bitfinex to Stop Serving Ontario Crypto Investors

Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex announced it would be leaving the Ontario market, Canada’s most populous, reminding users that should withdraw all their capital on or before March 1.

In the official announcement, accounts with no balances will be closed and Ontario users who do not have open positions on the exchange’s peer-to-peer (P2P) funding markets will not be able to access those markets. Clients with no open margin positions will also no longer be able to obtain margin or borrow.

Late last month, The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) of Canada warned another leading crypto exchange Binance that it has not yet obtained the legal operating qualifications for the province of Ontario.

In addition to the Bitfinex and Binance exchanges, other exchanges such as Poloniex, Bitmex, and KuCoin have been notified by the OSC over the past two years for failing to comply, urging Ontario residents to close their exchange accounts.

This cryptocurrency derivatives exchange has announced in 2020 that it planned on removing its trading platform services from a Canadian province, in accordance with a mandate issued by the Ontario Securities Commission.

One committee listed the six encryption platforms that have been registered with OSC this year as follows: Weathsimple, Coinberry, Netcoins, Coinsmart, Fidelity and Bitbuy.

Despite of its operations on the rocks, Bitfinex still expands its global business, Blockchain.News reported on September 8, Bitfinex is launching a new security token offering (STO) platform regulated by Kazakhstan.

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Leads £210M Round in UK-Based Consumer Finance Platform Lendable

Lendable.co.uk, a major AI-powered consumer finance platform based in London, announced on Thursday it raised £210 million in a funding round led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board through its Teachers’ Innovation Platform (TIP).

That is not the first time Canada’s pension organization invested in startups. In October last year, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and its Teachers’ Innovation Platform led a funding round in which the FTX crypto exchange obtained $420 million from various investors.

Teacher’s Innovation Platform (TIP) is a new investment department within Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (a pension fund company) and focuses on late-stage venture and growth equity in cutting-edge technology firms.

In the press release issued by Lendable, the company said that it plans to use the fresh funding to develop new products and to enable its expansion in new markets.

Martin Kissinger, founder and CEO of Lendable.co.uk, talked about the financing and said: “We are excited to partner with TIP as we accelerate our expansion across products and markets. Our DNA from day one has been to bring transparency and fairness to consumer finance, and we are proud of the fantastic feedback we consistently receive from our customers. TIP is a global growth investor with a long-term view who can support our ambition to make this giant market work better.”

Meanwhile, Olivia Steedman, Senior Managing Director at TIP, also commented about the development and stated: “Lendable’s seamless, quick and easy to use products, powered by advanced AI, are shaping the future of consumer finance. We’re delighted to work with Martin and his visionary team to deliver on Lendable’s growth ambitions.”

Providing Loans to Businesses

Founded in 2014 by Martin Kissinger and Victoria van Lennep, Lendable.co.uk is on a mission to use technology to make consumer finance work better for thousands of millions of customers. It applies automation and AI to enhance underwriting and offer customers better rates, transparency and service. The platform provides debt asset classes to fintech companies such as banks family offices, among others across the world, to offer credit facilities and financial services to their customers.

Lendable has proven popular with customers because it comes straight from an investor when clients borrow money from the lending platform. Unlike banks that hand out loans from a large amount of money, they look after on behalf of savers. Its platform is super-fast and makes lending as hassle-free as possible. The platform uses institutional capital to fund its services, according to the company. Within a matter of a few clicks, a customer gets her quote. Unlike banks that require paperwork and run expensive branch networks.

Last March, Lendable achieved unicorn status after it obtained backing from Goldman Sachs, a multinational investment bank. With plans to expand its business into the US marketplace, the lending platform is reported to be launching a new credit card product.

Image source: Shutrerstock

Crypto Miner Hut 8 Launches New Facility in Ontario, Bitcoin Mining Production Remains Robust

On Monday, Hut 8 Mining Corp, a Bitcoin mining company, published its Bitcoin (“BTC”) production and miner installation updates for May 2022.

Based on the latest report by Hut 8 Mining Corp, the cryptocurrency mining business is a good investment. It is evident that most miners look solidly profitable.

Hut 8 improved its Bitcoin holdings in the period that ended May 31. Last week on Thursday, the mining firm announced that it started operations in its third mining facility at its North Bay site in Ontario, Canada. In late May, the company began testing its North Bay facility and started operating on 15 MW of power on June 2, adding approximately 400 PH/s to its operating capacity.

According to the report, Hut 8 mined 309 Bitcoins in May, hitting an average production rate of 10 Bitcoin per day. The firm decided to hold on to all of its self-mined Bitcoins in line with its long-standing HODL strategy.

As of May 31, Hut 8 said that it has a total of 7,078 BTC held on its balance sheet and installed an operating capacity of 2.64 exahash per second. Its Ethereum mining constituted about 14% of its total production, the company mentioned.

According to the company’s statement, since power costs continued to fluctuate throughout the month, the firm had to limit consumption at its facility at Drumheller (a town in Canada) as the spot price for power spiked.

Hut 8 said it is continuing to add miners and increase its power supply throughout June and expects that the North Bay mine will have a significant impact on its production results going forward.

Jaime Leverton, CEO of Hut 8, talked about the development and said: “We are thrilled that our most powerful and efficient machines are now mining Bitcoin at our North Bay site. Over the next several weeks, our team will continue installing and bringing miners online in real-time, complementing production at our facilities in Medicine Hat and Drumheller.”

Investors Seeing Compelling Opportunities in Miners

The latest development by Hut 8 is a testimony that crypto mining companies are providing a compelling investment alternative compared with other forms of direct and indirect exposure to cryptocurrencies.

Mining is still highly profitable and gross margins remain super healthy despite the sharp decline in crypto prices and an increasing network hashrate.

Major Bitcoin mining firms such as Marathon Digital, Hut 8, Bitfarms, Hut 8, Argo Blockchain, and Bit Digital have continued to build cost leadership and production scale, which provide better investment opportunities than volatile cryptocurrencies.

They have become a popular way in which many investors seek to invest indirectly in the underlying asset.

Hut 8 Purchases 5,800 Mining Rigs to Improve Productivity in Ontario

Hut 8, a Bitcoin mining company based in Canada, announced on Wednesday that it has bought 5,800 mining machines for its Ontario facility.

With the latest purchase, these mining rigs to its fleet at its mining facility at the North Bay site in Ontario. Hut 8 mentioned that new machines will add greater petahashes per second (PH/s) of hashrate to its Bitcoin mining capacity, once fully deployed.

The firm expects the addition of the new miners to help increase its mining production capacity, especially during this bear market that has seen a significant drop in mining output alongside a plunge in crypto prices.

Hut 8 disclosed that its machines at its North Bay site in Ontario were operating on 20 megawatts (MW) of power, as of June 30.

Currently, the Bitcoin mining firm said its total operating capacity in computing power stood at 2.78 exahash/second (EH/s).

Hut 8 revealed that it mined 328 Bitcoins during June and increased its holdings to 7,406 BTC ($148 million).

The company disclosed that it would continue to hold its mined Bitcoins. This is in contrast to other miners are selling their Bitcoins to pay operating expenses and loan obligations. On Tuesday, Core Scientific, a major mining firm in the industry, sold 7,202 Bitcoins in June to raise $167 million.

With the ongoing crypto winter, all miners are witnessing declining profits as Bitcoin prices dropped last month. Some mining firms are facing margin calls on debt issued during bull periods as the value of their collateral, normally mining machines or Bitcoin, has also dropped.

Hut 8 is one of the least leveraged publicly-traded Bitcoin mining companies relative to its equity. The firm had CAD$140 million ($107 million) in cash as of the end of last year, according to its annual earnings report.

Hut 8 has diversified its revenue streams away from cryptocurrency. Its high-performance computing business is on track to see a growth of up to 18% by the end of 2022.

Hut 8 is not the only Bitcoin mining firm to have added its mining rigs during this market crash. Mid-last month, CleanSpark, a Bitcoin mining based in California, purchased an addition of 1,800 Antminer S19 XP computers to take advantage of the bear market and the fallen prices for Bitcoin mining rigs.

CleanSpark capitalized on the current difficult market conditions, where the plunge in Bitcoin prices led to a drop in the prices of ASICs, computerized devices specifically used for mining Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency.