Coinsquare Capital Markets Inc. (“Coinsquare”) is offering crypto contracts to purchase and sell Maker 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 Coinsquare’s platform, including an opinion that the crypto assets are not themselves securities and/or derivatives.
Coinsquare has compiled the information contained in this Crypto Asset Statement to the best of its ability based on publicly available information.
Rune Christensen is the founder & CEO at Maker. Designed by a group of contributors, including developers within the Maker Foundation, its outside partners, and other persons and entities, the Maker Protocol is the first decentralized finance (DeFi) application to see significant adoption. The Maker Protocol is managed through MakerDAO, which is governed by people around the world who hold its governance token, MKR. MakerDAO exists to underpin the Dai stablecoin which is used in numerous DeFi applications.
As with all assets, investing in Maker 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 Coinsquare’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 Maker 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 Maker.
Since MakerDAO exists to govern and underpin Dai, MKR is inherently linked to Dai.1 Consequently, all of the unique risks of Dai are also risks to the MKR token, as failure of Dai could trigger a change in market sentiment towards Maker, and ultimately affect MKR token price. Coinsquare highly recommends reading the Dai Crypto Asset Statement to understand the risks associated with Dai. Any issues with Dai’s security, stability, or US dollar peg could have negative impacts on Maker.
Although MakerDAO is a decentralized autonomous organization, governed by voting by MKR token holders, its founder has been able to demonstrate control over DAO decisions by exercising his influence and large token holdings. In June 2022, MakerDAO began the voting process on proposals for significant protocol changes, which prompted the largest voter participation in MakerDAO’s history. The proposal saw numerous large venture capital firms voting together, with Rune Christensen and others from the Maker founding team voting against them. Following the vote, which ended in Christensen’s favour, members of the MakerDAO community expressed concern about his influence. It was suggested that MakerDAO shouldn’t be called a DAO, but should be considered a company with a CEO, referring to the founder’s influence on protocol changes.2 Investors should consider the founder’s influence and the nature of voting within the MakerDAO protocol when evaluating MKR.
The MKR token supply is highly concentrated. The top 10 wallet addresses hold 43.6% of the supply, and the top 100 wallet addresses hold 83.36% of the supply. The vast majority of the total supply of MKR (977,631 tokens) is currently in circulation, with only minor scheduled additions. This means that the decisions of the largest holders could greatly affect the market price of MKR as they control the majority of marketable supply.3 Investors should consider the concentration of token holders, and consequently voting rights, when evaluating MKR.
To be made available for trading on Coinsquare’s platform, a digital asset must pass the following due diligence reviews:
Coinsquare 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. Coinsquare’s New Product Committee must provide final approval for a new digital asset to be made available on the platform.
