Canada Gets Its Own Stablecoin

Canada just got its first regulated stablecoin denominated in Canadian dollars.

Digital technology and financial services firm Tetra Trust Company has launched the CADD stablecoin with regulatory approval from the Alberta Treasury Board and Finance. It says CADD is the first CAD-pegged stablecoin issued by a regulated financial services firm.

All funds backing CADD are held in trust in Canada and dedicated exclusively to redemption, Tetra said, adding that it meets all institutional expectations around asset protection, transparency, and regulatory compliance.

CADD is now live on the Base, Ethereum and Tempo blockchains, with Solana support coming soon. It promises near-instant settlement of transactions.

“This milestone reflects the strong collaboration with Alberta’s government, industry partners and regulators to bring a compliant and scalable Canadian-dollar stablecoin to market,” said Didier Lavallée, founder and CEO of Tetra Digital Group. “It enables faster and more efficient movement of Canadian dollars on-chain within a structure institutions recognize.”

It also frees Canadian firms wishing to transact in stablecoins from having to use U.S.-dollar denominated ones. The $317 billion stablecoin market is dominated by Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC, which together account for $$267 billion of that, according to CoinGecko.

CADD is focused on institutional use cases that were previously difficult and costly to execute on existing Canadian financial rails, including 24/7 cross-border settlement, real-time corporate treasury transfers, programmable payments for marketplace payouts, and direct settlement between fintech partners without correspondent banking delays.

Canada clears roughly $424 billion per business day, on legacy financial rails that still rely on batch-based infrastructure from the 1980s. Even though the Canadian dollar is one of the most traded currencies globally, Tetra said there has not been a CAD-denominated digital asset payment rail, leaving businesses dependent upon USD-denominated stablecoins.

CADD is backed by a consortium of Canadian financial institutions and tech companies including Tetra Digital Group, Urbana Corporation, Wealthsimple, Purpose Unlimited, Shakepay, ATB Financial, National Bank of Canada and Shopify. These firms also helped Calgary, Alberta-based Tetra raise $10 million for the project last September.