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The world’s biggest crypto exchange continues to find itself in hot water. Canada’s Ontario Securities Commission hit Binance with an investigation order last month, documents show.
According to a filing with the Capital Markets Tribunal, Binance was going to be investigated to see if it had tried to skirt round securities laws.
Binance days later announced that it was leaving the country due to “new guidance related to stablecoins and investor limits.”
The exchange asked the Securities Commission to then drop the investigations—claiming it was “extremely broad” and “issued without any actual factual basis.”
In the May 18 filing, Binance adds that the “investigation order has no legitimate purpose” and that the exchange has already exited Ontario and Canada.
A hearing on whether the investigation will be dropped will take place on June 2, according to Capital Market Tribunal documents.
Binance isn’t the only crypto firm to find Canada a difficult place to do business: yesterday, digital asset exchange Bybit said it was leaving the country, and OKX in March announced it was pulling out, citing “new regulations.”
Major regulators—mainly American ones—have been on Binance’s tail for some time now. The CFTC, SEC, and IRS have all opened investigations into the exchange and Department of Justice prosecutors in December were reportedly weighing up whether to aggressively go after the exchange or take time to review more evidence.
Just in April, lawyers hit Binance boss Changpeng Zhao and his exchange with a $1 billion civil lawsuit for allegedly touting unregistered securities and paying celebrities to help do so.
Investigations picked up after the bankruptcy of mega crypto exchange FTX last November. U.S. attorneys in Seattle reportedly asked financial firms to hand over records of communication with Binance because of its proximity to its collapsed competitor.