Well, this is disappointing. After all the hype and hoopla, after all the hope that Canada may be taking an important and crucial next step towards furthering the cryptocurrency space, it turns out that rumors of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) creating its own cryptocurrency exchange were simply that… Rumors.

RBC Dispels All Rumors

The Royal Bank has emerged to state that it is not creating, nor does it have any plans to create a cryptocurrency trading platform in the future. While the financial institution has filed a few patents here and there, it seems news outlets ultimately read too much into this. A spokesman for the bank explained:

While RBC does not comment on ongoing proprietary research and development, we can confirm that these patent filings are not in support of work towards a cryptocurrency exchange for clients. RBC has no near-term plans to launch a cryptocurrency exchange for clients.

As it turns out, the bank is simply undergoing a period of innovation and looking deeper into the benefits of cryptocurrency technology. Thus, it is filing patents whenever it has new ideas, but it has yet to seriously act on any of those ideas at press time.

Canada has had something of a mixed relationship with cryptocurrency. One of the country’s primary exchanges – Quadriga CX – has ultimately come under serious fire over the past year when its head executive, Gerald Cotten, died due to complications from Chron’s Disease last December while allegedly abroad doing charity work in India.

Cotten is said to have been the only one with the private keys necessary for accessing customers’ funds and accounts, and when he passed, access to the exchange ultimately went with him. Millions of dollars are locked away, with hundreds of customers unable to touch them. They later turned to harassing Cotten’s wife for the money, and when that didn’t work, a class-action lawsuit was quick to follow.

News later emerged that Cotten may have potentially embezzled customer funds housed in the exchange prior to his demise.

A Rough History with Exchanges

In addition, a separate cryptocurrency exchange in Canada known as the Einstein Exchange mysteriously shut its own doors just a matter of weeks ago, taking all customer funds with it. The exchange is now being investigated by law enforcement, who claim that the building housing the exchange is vacant and that none of the company’s telephone numbers reveal any clues as to what might have occurred.

At the same time, Canada is widely viewed as a potential cryptocurrency safe haven thanks to its newly relaxed cryptocurrency regulation, backtracking on some of its reporting requirements and ensuring that data only on transactions beyond a certain financial figure is required to be forwarded to Canadian legislators.

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