TL;DR
- Bill C-15 (Stablecoin Act) formally recognizes stablecoins as payment infrastructure, giving Canada a foundation to compete in a global stablecoin market that has surpassed $400 billion CAD.
- The Act’s blanket prohibition on paying interest or yield “directly or indirectly” is broad enough to capture activity-based rewards, leaving CAD stablecoins unable to compete with USD instruments that pay holders.
- Regulatory fragmentation across provincial and federal frameworks has left three CAD stablecoins under three regimes; the implementing regulations need a clear federal paramountcy provision.
- Kraken is the first platform to list QCAD, Canada’s first fully compliant CAD stablecoin, and now enables holders to earn rewards.
Canada is at an inflection point. With the passage of Bill C-15 (Stablecoin Act), the country has taken a meaningful step forward, formally recognizing stablecoins as payment infrastructure and laying the groundwork for a regulatory framework that positions Canada as a serious participant in the next generation of global finance. That work was hard-won, and it matters.
The opportunity now is to build on that foundation with urgency. The global market for stablecoins (tokenized fiat that enables instant, programmable value transfer) has surpassed $400 billion CAD in market cap. These are no longer niche crypto instruments or experimental products.
Stablecoins settle in seconds, operate 24/7, and move globally without relying on traditional banking hours or correspondent networks. They are rapidly becoming core infrastructure for how value moves across the internet.
Canada has earned a seat at the table. The question now is how we build on the strong foundation the Parliament of Canada has established. Failing to build on this foundation risks ceding billions in capital and future economic activity to jurisdictions that move faster, and the window to act is open right now. The legislation is in place. What happens next depends entirely on the quality of the regulations that follow.
Stablecoins are becoming the payment layer of the digital economy
Stablecoins are tokenized fiat currency, digital representations of sovereign money that combine price stability with the speed and programmability of blockchain networks. The benefits of stablecoins are numerous.
They enable faster, lower-cost, programmable payments with real-time settlement, reducing friction in cross-border commerce and allowing digital markets to operate globally.
For consumers, this means lower remittance costs and broader access to digital financial services. For merchants, it means immediate settlement, reduced chargeback risk, and seamless global reach.
The global shift toward tokenized payments is well underway, and Canada is positioned to be part of it. Building on the framework established through Bill C-15, ensuring CAD is accessible in tokenized form will be key to translating legislative intent into real-world impact for Canadian businesses and consumers.
The risk: Canada’s dollar falls behind
Canadians effectively have access to just one dominant compliant stablecoin (a USD-pegged instrument), with the CAD stablecoin ecosystem only beginning to emerge. That is changing. QCAD received its final prospectus receipt from Canadian securities regulators in November 2025, becoming Canada’s first fully compliant CAD stablecoin. Recognizing the importance of this development, we listed QCAD in April, and are now excited to launch rewards for QCAD holders.
This momentum is real, but it faces a structural headwind baked into Bill C-15 itself. The Act currently prohibits stablecoin issuers from paying any interest or yield “directly or indirectly,” a formulation the C.D. Howe Institute flagged as stricter than the US GENIUS Act, broad enough to capture activity-based rewards.
The potential consequences are stark: a Canadian user holding QCAD on Kraken might earn nothing, while a US user holding USDC on a foreign platform earns 3.35%. Without a fix, CAD stablecoins cannot compete on their home turf, and Canadian users will default to USD-denominated instruments or go offshore entirely.
Fragmentation compounds the problem. Different stablecoins have arrived via different regulatory pathways, and not all have achieved the Value-Referenced Crypto Asset (VRCA) compliance required for listing on registered platforms like Kraken.
The Stablecoin Act does not expressly override the provincial securities law, leaving open the possibility of dual regulation. The result is three CAD stablecoins operating under three different frameworks, not a foundation for a competitive national ecosystem.
The implementing regulations for the Stablecoin Act, being drafted now, must address both problems directly: a clarification that activity-based exchange rewards are outside the yield prohibition’s scope, and a clear federal paramountcy provision or coordination mechanism with provincial regulators.
Without both, Canada will have a framework law without a unified framework. The opportunity is significant: a well-designed federal framework keeps Canadian capital, users, and innovation on Canadian-regulated infrastructure.
Regulation that reflects function
The foundation for growing CAD stablecoin adoption is a regulatory framework that matches how these instruments actually work. Bill C-15 was an important step in that direction, formally recognizing stablecoins as payment infrastructure rather than investment products, and establishing that they are distinct from securities or derivatives.
That distinction matters, and the draft regulations need to carry it through consistently.
We believe the federal framework being developed by the Department of Finance, with oversight administered by the Bank of Canada, offers the most promising path forward. We hope to see it:
- Resolve fragmentation and regulatory overlap across provincial and federal jurisdictions
- Provide clarity for issuers, exchanges, and consumers on what compliance looks like in practice
- Reinforce stablecoins’ role as payments infrastructure, consistent with the intent of the Stablecoin Act
- Replace the blanket “directly or indirectly” yield prohibition with a framework that permits compliant reward and exchange-based programs, consistent with the US GENIUS Act approach
We look forward to working with the Department of Finance and the Bank of Canada over the next few months to help shape a framework that achieves these goals.
Canada has an opportunity and we are taking action
We have deep roots in Canada, with hundreds of employees and many loyal clients. Canada’s stablecoin ecosystem is gaining real momentum. We are proud to support that growth as the first platform to list QCAD, a fully compliant CAD-pegged stablecoin, and enable holders to earn rewards. We look forward to continuing to expand compliant options for Canadian customers.
QCAD enables our Canadian and global clients alike to maintain and grow their CAD exposure, without sacrificing access to liquidity, 24/7 markets, and innovative financial use cases that are missing in traditional finance.
Ensuring the Canadian dollar remains relevant in the next era of finance will require both policy leadership and market action. Tokenized fiat is already becoming foundational infrastructure globally, and the momentum here at home, from Bill C-15 to the emergence of compliant CAD stablecoins, puts Canada in a real position to shape what comes next.
The CAD belongs onchain, and the foundations being built today are what will make that a reality.
Although the term “stablecoin” is commonly used, there is no guarantee that the asset will maintain a stable value in relation to the value of the reference asset when traded on secondary markets or that the reserve of assets, if there is one, will be adequate to satisfy all redemptions.
Payward Canada Inc., operating as Kraken, is registered as a money services business with FINTRAC (M19343731) and as a Restricted Dealer with the Ontario Securities Commission and the securities regulators in each of the provinces and territories of Canada.