Canadian Watchdog Says It Doesn't Regulate QuadrigaCX Exchange

The securities watchdog in the Canadian province of British Columbia has said that it has no remit to regulate troubled crypto exchange QuadrigaCX, which owes customers millions of dollars said to be frozen on an encrypted laptop.

According to Reuters, the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) spokesman Brian Kladko said Thursday that, as Vancouver, B.C.-based QuadrigaCX was not trading in securities or derivatives, the exchange does not come under its purview.

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) also told Reuters: “No crypto-asset trading platform had been regulated as a marketplace by Canadian securities regulators.” The CSA is a collective forum comprising the regional securities regulators of Canada.

Possibly as much as $190 million in both cryptocurrency and fiat owned by QuadrigaCX users have been unreachable since the firm's founder and CEO, Gerald Cotten, died in December, leaving no a way for staff to access the computer apparently storing its funds.

Cotten’s death has been at the center of concerns and theories about the state of the exchange and the sequence of events leading up to the current situation.

The exchange has since sought creditor protection in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court as it seeks to find a way to refund users and access the locked funds. On Tuesday, a judge from the court granted the exchange its application, giving it a 30-day stay of proceedings to try and resolve the situation for users.

Vancouver image via Shutterstock