Can Canadian Regulators Help Recover The Money From QuadrigaCX?

It looks like no headway has been made yet in the QuadrigaCX case, whose founder passed away recently and thereby unintentionally blocked access to $190 million worth of digital assets. With people expressing growing concern over their lost money, the Canadian Regulators have finally been stirred into action.

Although the provincial securities regulators in British Columbia, Canada, have already made it clear that they will not be launching an investigation into the QuadrigaCX scandal, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has some different plans. They have agreed to launch an investigation into the case.

Since the scandal jeopardizes Ontario investors, the OSC has agreed to look into the scam. In a statement made by the body on Friday, they confirmed that they will be looking into QuadrigaCX case. OSC said in the statement:

Given the potential harm to Ontario investors, we are looking into this matter.

We still do not have a confirmation on the nature of the investigation that will be launched, but we presume that some serious action will be taken soon enough. The OSC is the Ontario provincial arm of the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) and its job is to protect regional investors.

It now seems that they are the most well suited body to investigate this entire matter, and considering they have committed to “innovative regulation” of cryptocurrencies in their “2018-2019 Statement of Priorities,” it only seems appropriate that they look into this case in depth.

On the other hand, the British Colombia Securities Commission (BCSC) has already given up on the case. They said that QuadrigaCX was not within their jurisdiction, and there will be no action taken on their behalf. A spokesperson responded to questions saying:

[BCSC] does not currently have any indication that Quadriga CX, the crypto asset trading platform, was trading in securities or derivatives or operated as a marketplace or exchange under British Columbia securities laws.