The British Columbia Securities Commission（BCSC）has exposed LiquiTradeLtd.,a CaymanIslands-basedcompany,for operatingLATOKEN,an unregistered crypto trading platform in BritishColumbia.
Points
- LiquiTradeLtd.operatesLATOKENwithoutproperregistration.
- LATOKENfacilitatedmajorcryptotradeswithoutcompliance.
- PotentialpenaltiesforLiquiTradeincludeheavyfinesandanoperationsban.
According to theBCSC’srecentreport,LiquiTrade has been facilitating the trading of major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum without proper registration under theprovince’sSecurities Act since2020.
A detailed analysis showed that LATOKEN had over1.5million traders and reported more than$300million dailytransactions.However,it lacked the necessary approvals to operate legally in BritishColumbia.
The BCSC investigation further discovered differences like transactions onLATOKEN.Users were not directly trading cryptocurrencies but were rather trading rights ofassets.
Notably,LiquiTrade was also inspected byGermany’sfinancial regulator in2022,which concluded the firm was unauthorized to provide financial services inGermany.The BCSC has yet to decide on the proper penalties to giveLiquiTrade,which may entail heavy fines and an operationsban.