In an email sent to Gemini’s Canadian users on September 30, the exchange stated that all accounts in Canada would be closed on December 31 and that users had 90 days to withdraw funds from the site. Gemini’s decision comes months after the country’s financial regulators issued guidelines for cryptocurrency exchanges and trading platforms doing business on Canadian soil.

“Effective December 31, 2024, Gemini will close all customer accounts in Canada with limited exceptions. As a result, we will be closing your Gemini account,” the exchange stated in the email.

The Gemini team requested Canadian consumers to transfer their cryptocurrency to an external wallet address. Users having fiat currency in their accounts can withdraw them to their registered bank accounts, it added.

Canada’s Strict Regulatory Measures

On February 22, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) issued a notice requiring all cryptocurrency trading platforms to go through a legally binding pre-registration undertaking (PRU) to keep operating in Canada. Among other restrictions, exchanges are forbidden from letting Canadian clients buy and store stablecoins without prior clearance from the CSA.

“In light of recent insolvencies involving a number of CTPs, including Voyager Digital, Celsius Network, the FTX group of companies, BlockFi, and Genesis Global (collectively recent CTP insolvency events), we are introducing important new investor protection provisions into the standard form of PRU,” the CSA stated.

Then, on April 17, 2024, the Canadian government announced a new Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, which will go into effect in 2026. The framework will require all cryptocurrency brokers, exchanges, and ATM operators, to submit full transaction data annually.

The framework also calls for service providers to reveal client-specific information, such as names, residential addresses, and taxpayer identification numbers.

Other Major Crypto Exchanges That Left the Canadian Market Before Gemini

The Gemini move is just the latest in a string of crypto departures from the Canadian marketplace. On March 20, crypto exchange OKX announced that it was closing its operations in Canada. “Will no longer provide services or allow users to open new accounts in Canada starting on Mar. 24, 2023, 12:00 AM EST,” OKX wrote in an email sent to its Canadian users.

OKX also asked the users to close all open options, ongoing and future positions by June 22, 2023. Fiat or token withdrawals also had to be completed by that date.

dYdX, a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange, announced that it would depart the market starting in April 2023. In a blog post, the exchange stated that it will be “winding down services” in Canada, beginning with a halt to new user onboarding in the country. 

Paxos, a fintech startup that provides blockchain-based solutions to the worldwide financial industry, declared its withdrawal from the Canadian market, also in April 2023. The company issued a statement saying its Canadian customers will no longer be able make transactions from their Paxos accounts beginning June 2, with the exception of withdrawals.

In a blog post on May 30, another major crypto exchange Bybit announced that it will no longer accept account opening requests from Canadians from May 31. Current crypto exchange users will have until July 31 to complete deposits and “increase any of their existing positions” before these services are shut off, with remaining assets liquidated after September 30.

Crypto exchange Binance joined OKX, dydx, Paxos, and Bybit by announcing its departure from Canadian business in an X post on May 13, mentioning they do not agree with the new guidelines from the CSA. Later, the exchange sent an email to its Canadian users, advising them to close all open positions by September 30.

“We had high hopes for the rest of the Canadian blockchain industry. Unfortunately, new guidance related to stablecoins and investor limits provided to crypto exchanges makes the Canada market no longer tenable for Binance at this time. We put off this decision as long as we could to explore other reasonable avenues to protect our Canadian users, but it has become apparent that there are none,” Binance stated.

Despite the departure of the major exchanges from Canadian market, several global platforms including Crypto.com, Coinbase, and Kraken, are still operating within the country’s territory.