Crypto Asset Statement for USDC

Most recent update: April 25, 2022

This overview provides a summary of certain risks involved with trading any crypto asset and is not exhaustive. Investors are encouraged to conduct their own research prior to trading any crypto asset.

No securities regulatory authority has expressed an opinion about the Crypto Contracts or USDC, that are made available on the Bitvo Platform, including an opinion that USDC is not itself a security and/or derivative. Changes to applicable law may adversely affect the use, transfer, exchange or value of any of your crypto assets, and such changes may be sudden and without notice.

Prior to listing USDC on the Bitvo Platform, Bitvo Inc. (Bitvo) conducted due diligence and determined that USDC is unlikely to be a security or derivative under Canadian securities legislation. Our analysis including reviewing publicly available information concerning:

1. The creation, governance, usage and design of USDC, including the source code, security and roadmap for growth in the developer community and, if applicable, the background of the developer(s) that created USDC;
2. The supply, demand, maturity, utility, and liquidity of USDC;
3. Material technical risks associated with USDC, including any code defects, security breaches, and other threats concerning USDC and its supporting blockchain (such as the susceptibility to hacking and impact of forking), or the practices and protocols that apply to them; and
4. Legal and regulatory risks associated with USDC, including:
   1. any pending, potential, or prior civil, regulatory, criminal, or enforcement action relating to the issuance, distribution, or use of USDC; and
   2. statements made by any securities regulatory authorities in Canada, other regulators in IOSCO-member jurisdictions, or the regulator with the most significant connection to USDC about whether USDC, or generally about whether the type of crypto asset, is a security and/or derivative.

Like all crypto assets, there are general risks associated with USDC including: volatility risk, liquidity risk, short history risk, demand risk, forking risk, code defects, regulatory risk, electronic trading risk, and cyber security risk. For additional information of general risks associated with crypto assets, you may refer to the Bitvo Platform Risk Statement. Further, USDC is a stablecoin issued by Circle Internet Financial, LLC (Circle). Each USDC is redeemable for one US dollar. The reserves backing USDC are segregated and the sufficiency of such reserves is independently verified by Grant Thornton. Approximately 60% of the reserves backing USDC are cash and cash equivalents. Other reserves include certificates of deposit, commercial paper, corporate bonds and other assets that, while liquid, are not as liquid as cash and cash equivalents. The reserves backing USDC are held at regulated financial institutions, however, Circle is not, itself, a regulated financial institution.

As a reminder, this Crypto Asset Statement is not intended to be exhaustive of all risks associated with trading USDC and we encourage you to conduct your own due diligence to determine whether trading USDC is right for you.

Bitvo is offering Crypto Contracts on crypto assets in reliance on a prospectus exemption contained in the exemptive relief decision Re Bitvo Inc. dated April 25, 2022. Please be aware that the statutory rights in section 204(1) of the Securities Act (Alberta) and, if applicable, similar statutory rights under the securities legislation of each other province and territory in Canada, do not apply in respect of the Crypto Asset Statement to the extent a Crypto Contract is distributed under the prospectus relief in the Decision.