Even as crypto exchanges exit Canada, Coinbase intends to play the “long game”

Kraken, Gemini and Crypto.com also plan to continue operating in the country

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, said last week that it would stop serving Canadian customers due to “new guidance related to stablecoins and investor limits provided to crypto exchanges.” But while the exchange said it will return to the country “someday,” its departure leaves a huge void that its competitors aim to fill.

Coinbase is one of the big players in the space planning to do just that.

Coinbase, close behind Binance as the world’s No. 2 crypto exchange, is “open for business,” Nana Murugesan, vice president of international and business development at the exchange, told TechCrunch+. “We’ve always focused on playing the long game.”

In general, the Canadian crypto market is large, but it is far from the largest. Crypto revenue in the country is expected to reach USD 1.42 billion in 2023, due to statist. And currently, about 13% of Canadians own or use cryptocurrency, down slightly from the previous year and 116% more than in 2021, also due to statist.

At the end of February, Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) began to require crypto exchanges to sign new legally binding commitments if they were pending registration with the agency. CSA took action after several cryptocurrency trading platforms filed for insolvency, including Voyager Digital, FTX, and BlockFi.