Crypto exchanges in Canada said to face stricter rules later in February

Cryptocurrency exchanges operating in Canada will come under increased regulatory oversight as the country's umbrella markets watchdog seeks to tighten rules for such trading platforms later in February, CoinDesk reported Thursday, citing two people with knowledge on the plans. The move comes as regulators across the globe, chiefly the U.S., crack down on illicit crypto-related activities, including selling unregistered securities or violating investor protection laws. The U.K. financial regulator, for instance, said earlier this week it's taking aim at unregistered crypto ATM operators. The Canadian Securities Administration will update its pre-registration undertaking regime, which "was primarily driven by the Ontario Securities Commission and will crush the Canadian crypto industry overnight as it completely changes the CSA’s own stated rules and structures and will ensure it’s simply too expensive to do business in Canada," one of the people told CoinDesk . The CSA did not immediately respond to Seeking Alpha's request for comment. One of the better-known crypto exchanges operating in Canada is Bitbuy, owned by WonderFi ( OTCQB:WONDF ). It recently became the country's first registered crypto exchange to add polkadot ( DOT-USD ) to its staking offering .