The Supreme Court of Canada will hear an appeal brought by several companies that make up part of the Binance crypto platform — Nest Exchange Ltd., Binance Canada Capital Markets and Binance Canada Ltd. — on the question of the appropriate test for courts to determine jurisdiction for issuing freeze and management orders that involve foreign entities.
The court granted an application for leave to appeal a December 2025 Ontario Superior Court of Justice decision. In that decision, the court issued several orders sought by the Attorney General for Ontario seeking to freeze offshore property — $65,000 in crypto that was held in accounts with Binance — that allegedly represented the proceeds of a fraud.
According to the court’s decision, Canadian investigators traced the assets from a victim to three accounts controlled by Nigerian citizens, and Binance voluntarily froze the accounts when it was notified of the alleged fraud.
However, when the Ontario attorney general sought court orders over the assets, Binance opposed the application, arguing that the court didn’t have jurisdiction to issue an order against entities outside of Canada, and questioning the reliability of crypto tracing.
Ultimately, the court ruled that it did have jurisdiction to make orders against Binance Canada Capital Markets and Binance Canada — both Canadian corporations with head offices in Canada. It ruled it also had jurisdiction over Nest, which is based in Seychelles and has no physical presence in Canada, but had enough of a virtual presence in Canada to be considered to be carrying on business in Canada, the court concluded.
The court noted that while Binance/Nest was shutting its business in Canada, “I find that the customers, holdings, and available transactions rose to a level that constituted a virtual presence through their business.”
Now, the Supreme Court will hear an appeal of that decision to consider the right test for claiming jurisdiction for freeze/management orders under the Criminal Code targeting entities, and property held outside of Canada.