Canada Looks for Bitcoin Exchange Leader Amid Market Turmoil

Four bitcoin exchanges was too many, according to Dave Bradley, the operator of Calgary-based over-the-counter (OTC) bitcoin brokerage Bitcoin Brains.

Bradley is referring to CAVIRTEX, Cointrader, Quadriga CX and Vault of Satoshi, what had been the four exchanges serving the Canadian market at the start of 2015. In the last two months, however, both CAVIRTEX and Vault of Satoshi, the market’s oldest and arguably most visible bitcoin trading platforms, abruptly closed.

The sudden shutdown of CAVIRTEX, in particular, has caught much of Canada’s bitcoin ecosystem by surprise, the notice following on the heels of the decision by the province of Quebec to require licensing for bitcoin trading platforms, a move that further thrust regulation in the country into uncertainty.