The regulator says a majority of crypto-based activities in the country come under their jurisdiction.
The CEO of the Ontario Securities Commission, Grant Vingoe, recently stated that they’re planning to release a report on crypto adoption rates in Canada in October. Vingoe also reaffirmed the regulator’s tech-neutral outlook on crypto assets. Further, he stated that quite a few Canadian citizens planned on buying cryptocurrencies in the near future.
As Vingoe stated before the Economic Club of Canada a few days ago, a “vast majority of crypto-based entities” fall under the OSC’s jurisdiction, since the regulatory basics for assets like stocks and bonds apply equally to crypto contracts. The OSC head claimed that the regulator viewed Bitcoin and Ethereum primarily as commodities, whereas “arrangements that trading platforms have with investors” were classified as securities.
Further, Grant Vingoe had this to say: “As securities regulators, none of the characteristics of crypto assets or their underlying technology, either positive or negative, drives our regulatory approach, … We are not here to pick winners and losers among investments. We take a careful and technology-neutral approach to all new products that come into our market, and we apply the same reasoning in assessing them.”
Vingoe also added, “We know from our own research that more than 30 percent of Canadians plan to buy crypto assets in the next year.”