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Major Canadian Crypto Exchange Coinsquare Says Client Data BreachedCoinsquare, one of Canada’s largest cryptocurrency ex...
01/19/2023

Major Canadian Crypto Exchange Coinsquare Says Client Data Breached

Coinsquare, one of Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, may have been breached, but the company claims customer assets are “secure in cold storage and are not at risk.”
The exchange, which touts itself as “Canada's trusted platform to securely buy, sell and trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, and more,” emailed customers Friday to report a “data incident” in which an unauthorized third party accessed a customer database containing personal information.
According to the email, the breach exposed “customer names, email addresses, residential addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, device IDs, public wallet addresses, transaction history, and account balances.” Although the email was sent Friday, Coinsquare discovered the breach last week and notified customers via Twitter.

“No passwords were exposed. We have no evidence any of this information was viewed by the bad actor,” the email stated.
Coinsquare suspended activities on its platform after detecting the vulnerability last week, triggering speculation of possible liquidity issues, given the momentous implosion of multi-billion-dollar crypto exchange, FTX, earlier this month. Full service was restored on Friday, according to a tweet.
“We want to reiterate that 100% of client funds are safely held in cold storage and are not used for business activities,” the company tweeted.

Canada’s Largest Pension Fund No Longer Mulling Crypto Investment: ReutersHaving managed to sidestep the crypto investme...
01/19/2023

Canada’s Largest Pension Fund No Longer Mulling Crypto Investment: Reuters

Having managed to sidestep the crypto investments that burned two other major Canadian pension funds, CPP Investment (CPPI) said it is no longer pursuing opportunities in that sector, reports Reuters.
Though declining to comment on the specific reasons, Reuters said CPPI pointed to comments made earlier this year by CEO John Graham: “You want to really think about what the underlying intrinsic value is of some of these assets and build your portfolio accordingly … So I'd say crypto is something we continue to look at and try to understand, but we just haven't really invested in it."
Thus the plan, which manages C$529 billion (US$388 billion) for nearly 20 million Canadians, managed to avoid the losses suffered by peers Ontario Teachers’ (C$250 billion AUM), which had to fully write off its $95 million investment in crypto exchange FTX, and Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec (C$300 billion AUM), which fully wrote down its $150 million investment in crypto lender Celsius Network.

Canadian Securities Regulators to Strengthen Crypto Oversight After FTX CollapseThe Canadian Securities Administrators (...
01/19/2023

Canadian Securities Regulators to Strengthen Crypto Oversight After FTX Collapse

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) will strengthen its approach to crypto oversight following the recent events in the crypto market, according to a statement on Monday.
The body, which consists of securities regulators from each of the 10 provinces and three territories in Canada, said it would be expanding its existing requirements for platforms that are currently operating in the country. In August it had announced that it was expecting unregistered crypto companies in the country to do a pre-registration undertaking (PRU) while their application was approved.
"If a platform currently subject to securities legislation in Canada does not deliver a PRU to its principal regulator or cease operating, the CSA will consider all applicable regulatory options to bring the platform into compliance with securities law, including enforcement action," the statement said.
Regulators around the world have been looking more critically at crypto since FTX, which was the third-largest exchange by volume at one point, declared it was bankrupt and had misused customer funds. Its former CEO ,Sam Bankman-Fried, was arrested on Monday after the U.S. filed criminal charges.
Read more: FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Arrested, Bahamas Says
Recent events, where some of the biggest crypto companies and coins have collapsed including crypto lender Celsius Network and Terra's algorithmic stablecoin terraUSD (UST), have led to billions being wiped out of the crypto market within a year.
Crypto trading platforms that are registered as a security or have applied for a PRU are banned from permitting Canadian clients to trade or obtain exposure to crypto securities or derivatives, the statement reminded companies.
"The CSA continues to monitor and assess the presence and role of stablecoins in Canadian capital markets," the statement said.

Bitcoin Addresses Tied to Defunct Canadian Crypto Exchange QuadrigaCX Wake UpMore than 100 bitcoins tied to the defunct ...
01/19/2023

Bitcoin Addresses Tied to Defunct Canadian Crypto Exchange QuadrigaCX Wake Up

More than 100 bitcoins tied to the defunct Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX were transferred out of cold wallets thought to be beyond anyone’s control over the weekend, after sitting dormant for more than three years. The company's bankruptcy trustee, Ernst and Young, did not initiate the transfers, CoinDesk has learned.
QuadrigaCX went bankrupt in 2019 after the apparent death of founder and CEO Gerald Cotten. At the time of its collapse, Quadriga was believed to have owed thousands of customers nearly $200 million in various cryptocurrencies – a staggering failure for what was once Canada’s largest crypto exchange.
EY, which is acting as the trustee for Quadriga’s estate, announced in February 2019 that it lost control of about 100 BTC after mistakenly sending the coins to Quadriga-operated cold wallets that the Big Four financial services firm said it couldn’t access. At the time, the bitcoin was worth around $355,000 (C$470,000).
The bitcoin in these addresses remained frozen until last Friday, when the coins in all five addresses left between 6:52 p.m. ET and 7:14 p.m. ET.
Magdalena Gronowska, a bankruptcy inspector and member of Quadriga's creditor committee, said the funds were not moved by EY.
In total, 104.34 BTC worth around $1.7 million (C$2.4 million) at press time has left Quadriga’s wallets. Many of these funds appear to have been distributed to different wallets.
The amounts sent from each wallet match the amounts sent to those wallets in 2019. The wallets in question are:
1HyYMMCdCcHnfjwMW2jE4cv9qVkVDFUzVa
1JPtxSGoekZfLQeYAWkbhBhkr2VEDADHZB
1MhgmGaHwLAvvKVyFvy6zy9pRQFXaxwE9M
1ECUQLuioJbFZAQchcZq9pggd4EwcpuANe
1J9Fqc3TicNoy1Y7tgmhQznWrP5AVLXj9R
Blockchain sleuth zachxbt said on Twitter that the majority of these funds, nearly 70 BTC, appear to have gone to Wasabi, a coin mixing service. It is unclear why EY, a well-established financial services institution, might want to use a crypto mixing service, whose primary purpose would be to obfuscate the source and destination of funds.
"Bankruptcy Inspectors are aware Quadriga funds have moved. Thank you to blockchain investigators for following flows, we're working to gather more information and I hope we are able to recover stolen funds," Gronowska said.
A spokesperson for EY and an attorney with Miller Thomson, which represents Quadriga's creditors, did not return requests for comment.
In early reports, EY said that Cotten, as the sole proprietor of Quadriga in its waning days, was the only person who could access its funds. Investigators claimed that Cotten did not maintain clear records, part of why the effort to recover customer funds is dragging into a fourth year.
The Canada Revenue Agency, the nation’s tax enforcer, is also investigating the exchange and whether or not it filed its taxes appropriately while it still operated. A person familiar with the matter said the CRA investigation was the main issue preventing the bankruptcy proceedings from continuing.

British Columbia Imposes 18-Month Moratorium on New Crypto Mining OperationsBritish Columbia became the third Canadian p...
01/19/2023

British Columbia Imposes 18-Month Moratorium on New Crypto Mining Operations

British Columbia became the third Canadian province to impose restrictions on crypto mining, saying it will not approve new connections to its power grid for 18 months.
In recent weeks, utilities in Quebec and Manitoba imposed similar restrictions on the industry, citing the high demand for power.
The province wants to preserve electricity for "electric vehicles and heat pumps, and for businesses and industries that are undertaking electrification projects that reduce carbon emissions and generate jobs and economic opportunities," Josie Osborne, British Columbia's minister of energy, mines and low carbon innovation, said in a Wednesday post on the provincial government's website.
Currently, 21 projects are requesting a total of 1,403 megawatts (MW) in the province, equivalent to the energy needed to power approximately 570,000 homes, or 2.1 million electric vehicles, the post said.

Hive Earned Equivalent of 184 BTC From Curtailing Its Power Use in DecemberCanadian bitcoin miner Hive Blockchain (HIVE)...
01/19/2023

Hive Earned Equivalent of 184 BTC From Curtailing Its Power Use in December

Canadian bitcoin miner Hive Blockchain (HIVE) earned $3.15 million, or the equivalent of about 184 bitcoin, by curtailing its power use in December whereas it mined 213.8 BTC for the month.
Miners have been cutting back their power use at times of high demand for energy, selling the electricity back to the grid, in order to cope with market headwinds that have seen some of the biggest names in the industry filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Hive uses a mix of computers purpose-built for bitcoin mining, known as application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), and general purpose graphics processing units (GPU) to mine other tokens. The miner converts the alt-coins to bitcoin after mining them.
Hive's production was down about 20%, or 50 BTC, month on month. But the difference was more than made up by Hive's grid balancing activities, according to its December update, released on Monday.
Hive stock was up 2.2% on pre-market trading on the day, along with the broader crypto market.
The mining company also deployed the first machines that it has designed itself using Intel's (INTC) Blocksale chips. Hive installed 1,423 of the so-called Buzzminers, whereas all 5,800, totalling 620 petahash/second (PH/s) of computing power, will be shipped by the end of January, Hive said.
All in all, Hive mined the equivalent of 4,752 BTC throughout 2022, up 18% compared to the previous year.

Canadian Crypto Exchanges Coinsquare, WonderFi in Advanced Talks to Merge: BloombergCoinsquare Ltd. and WonderFi Technol...
01/19/2023

Canadian Crypto Exchanges Coinsquare, WonderFi in Advanced Talks to Merge: Bloomberg

Coinsquare Ltd. and WonderFi Technologies (WNDR) are in advanced talks to merge and become Canada’s largest crypto exchange, according to a report from Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.
An official announcement could come in the next few days, Bloomberg said.
Shares of the Kevin O’Leary-backed WonderFi were halted on the Toronto Stock Exchange following the release of the news on Thursday afternoon. WonderFi's shares closed up 29% to 31 cents.
The potential deal comes just days after Coinsquare terminated a previous agreement to acquire Coinsmart Financial, another crypto exchange based in Canada, according to Coinsmart.
The terms of the potential Coinsquare-WonderFi merger were not known, although one potential scenario involved Coinsquare shareholders taking a majority stake in the combined company, one of Bloomberg’s sources said.
Both WonderFi and Coinsquare said they had no comment on the merger report.
WonderFi said in November it had about 650,000 users and $258 million in assets under management, while the privately-held Coinsquare said it had about 500,000, according to Bloomberg.
In October, Coinsquare became the first crypto-native company to became a member of Canada’s top self-regulatory organization, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC).
UPDATE (Jan. 12, 20:04 UTC): Added no comment from WonderFi.
UPDATE (Jan. 12, 21:11 UTC): Added no comment from Coinsquare.
UPDATE (Jan. 12, 21:11 UTC): Added no comment from Coinsquare.
UPDATE (Jan 12, 21:45 UTC): Updates stock price.

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