At the end of February, the Canadian Securities Administrators Association (CSA) will tighten the requirements for cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the country. This was reported by two anonymous sources to Coindesk.

Details are yet to be released, but the CSA said they would “publish additional information in the near future.” The new rules will literally “crush the Canadian crypto industry” and make doing business with digital currencies in Canada “too expensive,” one of the sources shared the information.

Increased CSA oversight of cryptocurrency trading platforms will affect some of the major global exchanges operating in the country, such as Binance Canada.

The CSA has already tightened the requirements for cryptocurrency exchanges in 2022, amid the collapse of the FTX trading platform and the fall of the digital asset market. Cryptocurrency platforms are now required to separate client and own assets, as well as ensure that user funds are stored in a specially authorized custodial service. Crypto exchanges are prohibited from providing margin or leverage to Canadian traders. Platforms operating outside of Canada but offering services to Canadian citizens must comply with similar requirements.

In January, at the request of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), the Crypto.com cryptocurrency exchange delisted Tether (USDT) stablecoin from the listing of assets available to local users. The decision to delist Tether followed a clarification from the CSA, which interprets stablecoins as stock market instruments.