Canada Launches Its First Regulated Canadian Dollar Stablecoin
Tetra Trust launched CADD on May 4 - the first regulated stablecoin pegged to the Canadian dollar, aimed at solving delays in interbank settlements.
Summary
- CADD launched on May 4 in Canada.
- First regulated stablecoin pegged to CAD.
- Backed by Shopify and Coinbase.
- Runs on the Ethereum, Base, and Tempo networks.
- Goal: 24/7 payments.
Not a Crypto Product, but a Solution for Banks
Tetra Trust, a Calgary-based digital financial services company, launched CADD under the supervision of local financial regulators, with each token backed 1:1 by cash and cash equivalents held within the Canadian banking system.
The token already operates on Ethereum, Base, and Tempo, with integration planned for Solana—showing that from the outset the goal is broad adoption rather than a limited ecosystem.
More importantly, CADD is not competing with USDT or USDC for trading volume. Its real purpose is to replace slow interbank settlements in Canadian dollars, which currently take between one and three business days.
This means the main use cases are corporate transfers, international payments, and transactions between financial companies – areas where traditional banking infrastructure still involves delays and costs.
Major Companies Back the Project
The consortium behind CADD includes Shopify, the National Bank of Canada, Wealthsimple, Coinbase Ventures, Purpose Unlimited, Shakepay, ATB Financial, and Urbana Corporation, with a total of $10 million raised as early as September 2025.
Shopify’s involvement is logical from an operational perspective. The company processes a huge volume of payments and directly benefits from a tool that enables instant settlements in Canadian dollars without the limitations of banking hours.
However, a much more important signal comes from the National Bank of Canada. It is one of the country’s “Big Six” banks – not a fintech or crypto company – which indicates a real shift in how the traditional banking sector views blockchain-based payments.
This participation is not symbolic but a strong signal that such infrastructure is now seen as a real solution rather than an experiment.
The December Test That Went Under the Radar
As early as December 2025, Tetra Trust conducted a test transaction between Wealthsimple and the National Bank of Canada – the first transfer of a Canadian stablecoin between two financial institutions.
READ MORE: South Korea Accelerates KRW Stablecoin Push to Counter $115B Outflows
This detail remains in the background but is actually crucial, as it shows the system was tested in a controlled environment months before the public launch.
The sequence speaks for itself: funding in September, testing in December, real launch in May. The rollout was controlled, significantly reducing technical risk.
What CADD Actually Changes
For institutions in Canada, the solution brings several concrete improvements.
Companies will be able to transfer funds in Canadian dollars at any time, without waiting for bank working hours or interbank windows. International payments will be processed almost instantly instead of taking days.
Transfers between financial companies will be able to bypass intermediaries, reducing both costs and delays. Platforms will be able to automate payments through predefined conditions instead of relying on batch processing by banks.
The biggest challenge is not the technology, but adoption. Even a regulated stablecoin requires the counterparty in a transaction to use it as well, which means integration by companies, banks, and platforms.
The test between Wealthsimple and the bank shows that the process has already begun, but real large-scale usage will require many more participants.
On the other hand, regulatory approval removes the main barrier to institutional adoption, as companies are now working with a supervised instrument in Canada rather than an external or unregulated asset.
The information presented in this article is intended for informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as financial, investment, or trading advice. Coinspress.com does not promote or advocate for any particular investment strategy, asset, or cryptocurrency project. Cryptocurrency markets are highly volatile and unpredictable – always perform your own research and seek guidance from a qualified financial professional before making any investment decisions.
Alexander Stefanov
Reporter at CoinsPress
Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coinspress and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.
