Coinbase Canada’s new country director and CEO Eric Richmond thinks that Canadian cryptocurrency companies and watchdogs could use more “all-encompassing” regulation.
In an interview with BetaKit last month, Richmond noted that Canada’s patchwork of provincial and territorial securities regulators has largely governed crypto firms via staff notices and exemption orders, a fragmented approach he claimed has made operating more difficult for both businesses and authorities alike.
“We want Coinbase to be the platform that Canadians choose.”
Exemption orders in particular, Richmond said, not only make compliance very expensive for entrepreneurs building in the space, but are “hard on the regulators because they’ve got to do the same thing for each of the platforms.”
As a securities lawyer with experience navigating this path with his previous employers, Coinsquare, Shakepay, and Tetra Trust, Richmond knows the regulatory landscape well. So does Coinbase: in 2024, the US crypto giant became the first international crypto exchange to secure a restricted dealer licence in Canada with the Canadian Securities Administrators. Richmond said Coinbase Canada has already submitted its application to become regulated by the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization in a process the firm hopes to complete by early next year.
As leader of Coinbase Canada, Richmond said he plans to advocate for “more all-encompassing acts” that “codify” the rules Canada already has in place, citing jurisdictions like the European Union and Singapore as inspiration for how the country might achieve this.
His ask for a more harmonized digital asset framework is something that Canada’s crypto sector has been requesting for years.
Richmond also thinks Canada needs to establish clear “rules of the road” for people looking to establish businesses in the sector if it hopes to keep them here.
The CEO’s vision doesn’t end there: Richmond also has big plans for Coinbase in Canada, where the company already has 300 employees and has made 18 investments. North of the border, Coinbase operates as a crypto exchange for institutional and retail customers. Richmond joined the company in June as it gears up to bring more of the services it provides abroad—which include traditional equities, derivatives, prediction markets, blockchain-based lending and borrowing, and its Visa debit card—to the Canadian market.
“[We’re] looking to bring some of the best products that we have to offer globally to Canadians,” Richmond said. He hopes to “bring the everything exchange to Canadians”: a single platform for managing all sorts of financial assets beyond just crypto, while also pushing for the regulatory clarity both it and the industry need to thrive.
Coinbase Canada is plotting this expansion amid a crypto market slump, as it looks to compete against a smaller pool of dedicated domestic players, such as Netcoins, and more traditional trading platforms following WonderFi’s acquisition spree and subsequent purchase by US exchange Robinhood, which has officially entered Canada.
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“We want Coinbase to be the platform that Canadians choose,” Richmond said.
Richmond previously co-founded Calgary-based crypto custodian Tetra Trust and led Toronto-based digital asset trading platform Coinsquare, most recently serving as general counsel and head of business development at Montréal crypto firm Shakepay.
“I’ve been in the crypto space for a long time—10-plus years—typically working at companies that are [achieving] regulatory firsts,” he said. He wants to help his new employer secure more firsts, starting with crypto derivatives.
Richmond’s predecessor at Coinbase Canada, Lucas Matheson, who left late last year, has argued that Canada needs to regulate stablecoins (a form of crypto whose value is pegged to a more stable asset like the Canadian or US dollar) as a payment type rather than securities.
Some expect stablecoins to play an important role in how Canadian institutions settle transactions going forward. Richmond thinks it is “just a matter of time” until stablecoins become more embedded in traditional Canadian payments infrastructure.
At the Blockchain Futurist Conference last month, industry leaders argued that a lack of regulatory clarity on stablecoins was still hampering domestic innovation. With the Stablecoin Act on the way, Richmond expressed hope Canada would permit the ability to pay rewards on stablecoins and provide more guidance on the role of bank issuers and securities regulators.