Coinsquare Capital Markets Inc. (“Bitbuy”) is offering crypto contracts to purchase and sell Filecoin in reliance on a prospectus exemption granted by the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) in the exemptive relief decision dated October 12, 2022. The statutory rights of action for damages and the right of rescission in section 130.1 of the Securities Act (Ontario) and similar legislation in the other CSA jurisdictions do not apply in respect of a misrepresentation in this statement to the extent that a crypto contract is distributed under the above-noted prospectus relief.
No securities regulatory authority in Canada or any other jurisdiction has expressed an opinion about any of the crypto assets (or crypto contracts) that are available through Bitbuy’s platform, including an opinion that the crypto assets are not themselves securities and/or derivatives.
Bitbuy has compiled the information contained in this Crypto Asset Statement to the best of its ability based on publicly available information.
FIL is the cryptocurrency of the Filecoin network, a decentralized peer-to-peer storage network that can be used to store, retrieve and host digital information. FIL tokens are used to pay for these services. If you’re interested in mining, there are two options available on the Filecoin network. Miners can choose to either be storage dealers or retrieval dealers. Storage dealers get funded on the chain by clients to store data (and must provide proof of storage to get rewarded), whereas retrieval dealers extract data from storage for their clients. This type of deal is funded off the chain – usually via a micropayment channel.
As with all assets, investing in Filecoin is not without some general risks. Many of these risks are identified and explained in our Risk Statement.
The relevant sections in the Risk Statement are as follows:
Platform Risk, Short History Risk, Price Volatility, Potential Decrease in Global Demand for Digital Assets, Potential for Illiquid Markets, Transfers of Digital Assets are Irreversible, Concentration Risks, Uncertainty in Regulation, Financial Institutions May Refuse to Support Transactions Involving Digital Assets, Digital Assets’ Blockchain May Temporarily or Permanently Fork and/or Split, Cyber-Security Risk, Airdrops, Issues with Cryptography Underlying Digital Asset Networks, Internet Risk, Open Loop System, Risk if Entity Gains a 51% Share of Digital Asset Network, Possible Increase in Transaction Fees, Possible Increase in Service Fees, Limited Canadian Investor Protection Fund Account, No Voting Rights, Custody of Digital Assets, Custody Risk Insurance, Threats to Bitbuy’s Physical Assets, Covid-19 Outbreak, Use of Leverage, Halting, Suspending, and Discontinuing Digital Assets.
In addition to the general risks, we outline some risks that are specific to Filecoin below. While we make an effort to identify every source of risk, we encourage you to do your own research and ensure you are comfortable investing in Filecoin.
Filecoin and the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) are complimentary protocols that work simultaneously in the Filecoin network. While not all IPFS nodes are in the Filecoin network, all Filecoin nodes are in the IPFS network. This means that Filecoin relies on IPFS for all data storage within the network. IPFS, on its own, does not incentivize the storage of data for other network participants, which is the issue that Filecoin aims to solve.1 Any issues or flaws in the InterPlanetary File System could have an impact on market sentiment towards Filecoin or price of FIL. Investors should be aware of Filecoin’s dependence on IPFS when evaluating Filecoin.
To be made available for trading on Bitbuy’s platform, a digital asset must pass the following due diligence reviews:
Bitbuy undertakes these three levels of due diligence in order to determine whether the digital asset is compliant with our legal and regulatory obligations, is secure, and has historical data supporting a beneficial business case. Bitbuy’s New Product Committee must provide final approval for a new digital asset to be made available on the platform.
