Canada Approves First Cad Backed Stablecoin

Canada's First Regulated CAD-Backed Stablecoin Goes Live

Tetra Trust Company, via its agent CAD Digital Inc., has launched $CADD, a payment stablecoin backed 1:1 by Canadian dollars, after receiving regulatory approval from Alberta Treasury Board and Finance. The token marks a first for Canada: a CAD-denominated stablecoin issued directly by a licensed financial institution rather than a standalone crypto project.

The token is now live on Base, Ethereum, and Tempo networks, with a Solana deployment planned as a next step. All reserves are held in trust within Canada and dedicated exclusively to redemption, giving institutions the regulatory clarity they have historically demanded before engaging with digital asset rails.

The project secured $10 million in backing in September 2025 from a consortium that includes Shopify (NASDAQ: $SHOP), National Bank of Canada (TSX: $NA), Wealthsimple, ATB Financial, Shakepay, Purpose Unlimited, and Urbana Corporation (TSX: $URB), which holds a majority stake in Tetra Trust. That same group is now supporting the commercial rollout. In December 2025, Wealthsimple and National Bank completed a series of testnet transfers between one another using CADD, the first time a Canadian stablecoin moved between two financial institutions.

Why CADD Matters for Canadian Payments

The practical case for CADD is straightforward. Canada clears around $424 billion in payments each business day, much of it still running on batch infrastructure introduced in the 1980s. Tetra argues that Canadian institutions relying on U.S. dollar stablecoins for digital settlement bear unnecessary foreign exchange costs and regulatory friction. CADD is designed to remove both by providing a domestically governed, CAD-denominated alternative.

Targeted use cases include 24/7 cross-border settlement, real-time corporate treasury transfers, programmable marketplace payouts, and direct fintech-to-fintech settlement without correspondent banking delays. The token is structured to fall outside Canadian securities law because it is issued by a regulated trust company, a financial institution that holds assets on behalf of others under strict legal obligations, rather than through a securities offering.

Globally, stablecoin transaction volume surpassed $27 trillion in 2025, a figure that has largely benefited U.S. dollar-denominated tokens. Tetra CEO Didier Lavallée has pointed to that gap directly, arguing that Canada needs "a competitive offering" as more commerce moves into the digital sphere. Stablecoin market capitalisation has grown roughly tenfold since 2020, surpassing $400 billion, according to Deloitte.

Canada's federal Stablecoin Act was passed two months ago but will not come into force until 2027. Tetra says it believes it has the right to distribute broadly at the federal level in the interim, operating under the Alberta regulatory approval it already holds.

Sources:
BusinessWire – Tetra Digital Group Official Press Release
CoinDesk – Shopify and National Bank Back New CAD Digital Currency
BNN Bloomberg – First Regulated Canadian Digital Dollar

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