OSC reaches settlement with current and former operators of Polymarket on breach of binary options ban

TORONTO – A panel of the Capital Markets Tribunal today approved the Ontario Securities Commission’s (OSC) settlement agreement with Blockratize Inc. and Adventure One QSS Inc. for their failure to comply with the ban on offering short-term binary options to individual investors in Ontario.

Between June 2020 and May 2023, Blockratize Inc. and later Adventure One QSS Inc. violated Ontario securities law by offering binary options to investors in Ontario through their online global options trading platform Polymarket in breach of Multilateral Instrument 91-102 Prohibition of Binary Options (the Binary Options Ban).

The Binary Options Ban prohibits the advertising, offering, selling or trading of options to individual investors in Ontario that contain a yes/no proposition regarding the future outcome of a price or event, have a term to maturity of less than 30 days and offer a fixed payout if the proposition is met or nothing if it is not.

Blockratize Inc. and Adventure One QSS Inc. will be subject to two-year market bans, including a ban from trading securities or derivatives. Additionally, they have agreed to an administrative penalty of $200,000, a $22,966.75 USD voluntary payment, and a further $25,000 towards the cost of the OSC’s investigation.

A copy of the Settlement Agreement is available on the website of the Capital Markets Tribunal.

The mandate of the OSC is to provide protection to investors from unfair, improper or fraudulent practices, to foster fair, efficient and competitive capital markets, and confidence in the capital markets, to foster capital formation, and to contribute to the stability of the financial system and the reduction of systemic risk. Investors are urged to check the registration of any persons or company offering an investment opportunity and to review the OSC investor materials available at https://www.osc.ca.

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