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 crypto exchange, Binance, said last week that it would stop servicing 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 exit leaves behind a huge gap that its competitors are aiming 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, VP international and business development at the exchange, told TechCrunch+. “We’ve always focused on playing the long game.”

Overall, the Canadian market for crypto is large, but it’s far from the largest. Crypto revenue in the country is expected to reach $1.42 billion in 2023, per Statista. And currently, about 13% of Canadians own or use crypto, down slightly from the year prior and up 116% from 2021, also per Statista.

In late February, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) started requiring crypto exchanges to sign new, legally binding undertakings if they were pending registration with the agency. CSA took action after a number of crypto trading platforms went insolvent, including Voyager Digital, FTX and BlockFi.