How to check a crypto platform in Canada

Why checking matters

In Canada, crypto trading platforms that serve Canadians must register with provincial or territorial securities regulators. Registration comes with conditions about custody, segregation of client assets, which assets can be offered and what you must be told. If a platform is not registered or operating under an undertaking, none of those conditions bind it. The platform rules page explains the system in more detail.

Checking also protects you from impostors. Fraudsters copy the names, logos and web designs of real platforms. A quick check against the official lists, using the exact legal name and web address, catches most of these.

You can run through the steps below in one sitting, or follow along with our platform check tool and the printable platform due diligence checklist.

Step 1: Search the CSA authorized list

Go to the CSA page Crypto platforms authorized to do business with Canadians. As of 2026-10-30, the page showed it was last updated 2026-09-18. It lists platforms with links to their regulatory decisions, grouped into categories that include crypto asset trading platforms, crypto-backed lending platforms and some with authorization limited to certain provinces.

1. Find the platform by name. Note the exact legal entity name the list shows.
2. Open the linked decision. This is where the platform’s terms are set out.
3. Check which provinces or territories the authorization covers, and whether yours is one of them.
4. Look for terms that affect you, such as an investment limit, which assets are treated as specified, and how client assets are held.
5. Compare the website address in your browser with the one in the platform’s own disclosures, letter by letter.

Step 2: Check the crypto undertakings list

Some platforms that were already operating can keep serving clients while their registration is reviewed, if they sign a pre-registration undertaking. The CSA keeps these on its crypto undertakings page, which showed a last-updated date of 2026-07-17 when checked on 2026-10-30.

Being on this list means the platform has made written commitments to regulators. Since 2023-02-22, those enhanced undertakings have included holding client crypto with qualified custodians, segregating client assets and offering no margin or leverage. It does not mean the platform has completed registration, and terms may change when a decision is issued.

If a platform appears on neither list, treat that as a serious warning, whatever it says about licences elsewhere.

Step 3: Use Are They Registered and investor alerts

The CSA’s Are They Registered tool (last updated 2026-01-13 when checked) lets you search a firm or individual. It points you to three kinds of information:

• Registration: whether the firm or person is registered, and in which category and jurisdiction.
• Disciplinary history: including the CSA Disciplined List and cease trade orders on SEDAR+.
• Investor alerts: warnings regulators have issued about firms or websites, including ones that pretend to be registered.

The CSA regulation page also links to a list of banned crypto platforms and to expired decisions. A platform whose decision has expired is not one to send new money to until you understand why.

Keep FINTRAC in its own box. Dealing in virtual currency is a money services business activity that requires FINTRAC registration, but FINTRAC registration alone does not mean securities regulators have authorized a platform.

Red flags that should stop you

Any one of these is reason to pause. Two or more together, and you should walk away.

• It is not on the authorized list or the undertakings list, but claims to be “licensed” or “regulated” somewhere else.
• The name or web address is close to, but not exactly, what the CSA decision shows.
• Someone you met online, through social media, a dating app or a group chat introduced it and offers to guide your trades.
• It promises fixed high profits or says you cannot lose money.
• It pressures you to act fast or rewards you for depositing more.
• It asks you to pay a fee, tax or deposit before you can withdraw your own money.
• It asks for your seed phrase, or for remote access to your computer or phone.
• It offers margin or leverage on crypto to you as a Canadian retail client, which the 2023-02-22 enhanced undertakings barred for platforms operating under undertakings.

Our scam red flags tool goes through these in more depth, and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre publishes warning signs of investment scams.

If the platform isn’t listed

1. Don’t deposit, and don’t send more if you already have.
2. Search the CSA investor alerts and banned platforms list for the name and web address.
3. If you have money on the platform, try to withdraw it through the platform’s normal process. Do not pay any “release fee”.
4. Contact your provincial or territorial securities regulator, which you can find through the CSA website, to report an unregistered platform.
5. If you think you have been defrauded, follow the steps in report crypto fraud and the scam response checklist.

Your checklist

• Search the CSA authorized list and open the platform’s decision.
• Confirm your province or territory is covered.
• Check the crypto undertakings list if it isn’t on the authorized list.
• Search Are They Registered for disciplinary history and investor alerts.
• Match the legal name and web address exactly.
• Never share a seed phrase or pay a fee to withdraw.

Sources and dates

• Crypto platforms authorized to do business with Canadians — Canadian Securities Administratorsreference
  Page date 2026-09-18 · checked 2026-10-30. The official list of authorized platforms, with links to each decision.
• Crypto undertakings (pre-registration undertakings) — Canadian Securities Administratorsreference
  Page date 2026-07-17 · checked 2026-10-30. Platforms operating under a pre-registration undertaking.
• Are they registered? (National Registration Search) — Canadian Securities Administratorsreference
  Page date 2026-01-13 · checked 2026-10-30. Check registration, disciplinary history and investor alerts.
• Crypto platforms: regulation and enforcement actions — Canadian Securities Administratorsin force
  Page date 2025-10-22 · checked 2026-10-30. Platforms serving Canadians, including foreign ones, must register; operating platforms sign a pre-registration undertaking while under review.
• CSA strengthens oversight of crypto asset trading platforms (Staff Notice 21-332) — Ontario Securities Commission (CSA release)in force
  Page date 2023-02-22 · checked 2026-10-30. Enhanced undertakings: custody with qualified custodians, segregation, no margin or leverage, no stablecoin purchases without CSA consent.
• Money services businesses (MSBs) — FINTRACin force
  No date shown on page · checked 2026-10-30. Dealing in virtual currency is an MSB activity; MSBs must register with FINTRAC.
• Investment scams — Canadian Anti-Fraud Centrereference
  No date shown on page · checked 2026-10-31. Warning signs of investment and crypto investment scams.
• Investor tools — crypto assets — Canadian Securities Administratorsreference
  Page date 2025-10-22 · checked 2026-10-30. Crypto assets can be very volatile and risky; you could lose some or all of your funds.