Based within the United States, Coinbase Global Inc. is a publicly traded company with greater than eight million users and offices in over 100 countries. Coinbase officially launched in Canada in August 2023, but has been offering its services here since 2015. Over the past few years, the corporate has worked with Canadian securities regulators to develop a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and make sure that its platform adheres to strict rules regarding investment limits, segregation of client assets, margin trading, and more.
Coinbase’s ongoing challenges with US regulators
Coinbase’s successful registration in Canada stands in stark contrast to its ongoing legal battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) within the U.S. In July 2022, Coinbase filed a petition with the commission to propose rules to discover which digital assets are securities and to control the regulation of securities offered and traded through digital channels. The SEC has said that existing securities law is sufficient, but Coinbase called it “inadequate.” (Read more Coinbase vs SEC Timeline.)
The conflict didn’t stop Coinbase’s expansion – in 2023, the corporate was licensed and/or registered in Bermuda, Spain, France and Singapore and launched in Canada and Brazil.
Lucas Matheson, CEO of Coinbase Canada, recently served as a keynote speaker on the Collision Tech conference in Toronto. Before joining Coinbase in 2022, he spent five years at Shopify, most recently as Senior Director of Operations, and co-founded Pinshape, a marketplace for 3D printed products, in addition to other roles in finance and investment.
We spoke to Matheson about what crypto regulation means for investors, Coinbase’s growing presence in Canada, the longer term of Web3, and more.
Jaclyn Law: In April, Coinbase became a restricted merchant in Canada. What does that mean for the business?
Lucas Matheson: The most significant thing is that we have now regulatory clarity and we’re registered. This implies that we have now filed a lot of documents with our regulators to elucidate: how does our business work? How does our operation work? How will we serve our clients and the way will we make sure that conflicts of interest are managed and our clients are informed?
Interestingly, although I actually have been within the technology sector for a while, I actually have never had the chance to work with government, but we’re very much aligned with our regulators when it comes to what we wish to realize. How we get there’s something we’re still working on, but generally it’s a possibility for us to work together and create strong regulatory frameworks.
