Greater clarity on Canadian cryptocurrency regulation appears to be on the way, andndustry leaders say the country needs it as quickly as possible.
During a panel at Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto on Tuesday, speakers from the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE), Grinhaus Law Firm, Shakepay, and Tetra Digital Group said that, despite recent advances like the Stablecoin Act, a lack of regulatory clarity continues to hamper domestic crypto innovation.
Richard Carleton,
“We can’t afford to sit here and gaze at our navels and engage in endless federal-provincial jurisdictional challenges.”
Canadian Securities Exchange
This is not a new complaint: regulation has been a hot topic across the industry and a recurring theme at the Toronto conference, where industry leaders have been at times supportive and critical of Canada’s speed and approach to regulating the technology.
With major crypto-related regulatory changes on the way in the United States via the stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act and Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, speakers argued that Canada must be quicker to implement its own regulations to stay competitive.
“We can’t afford to sit here and gaze at our navels and engage in endless federal-provincial jurisdictional challenges,” CSE CEO Richard Carleton argued. Carleton, who also serves as the non-executive chair at Calgary-based crypto firm Tetra, said that these challenges are particularly pronounced for stablecoins.
Stablecoins are a form of cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to a more stable asset, such as a fiat currency like the Canadian or US dollar. Some industry leaders expect them to play an important role in the future of payments and, potentially, Canada’s economic sovereignty.
In Budget 2025, the Government of Canada committed to moving quickly to implement a regulatory framework for fiat-backed stablecoins (as opposed to algorithmic, commodity-backed, or crypto-collaterized stablecoins) issued by non-financial institutions. The country’s Stablecoin Act received royal assent in March, but has not yet come into force: the Department of Finance is now developing supporting regulations targeted for 2027.
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“There’s a lot of fragmentation, and there’s not enough clarity between what the feds do and how the provincial regulators work,” said panellist Jasraj Hallan, a Calgary-based member of parliament (MP) and Conservative shadow minister for national revenue.
Hallan agreed that this lack of clarity is holding back Canadian crypto innovation, adding that the federal government could help by quickly turning the Stablecoin Act into an immediately available “workable framework” offering a clear timeline to registration. The MP said that the feds could also help by working closely with the provinces to clearly define the roles each level of government has in regulating stablecoins.
Grinhaus founder Aaron Grinhaus, a lawyer who works with crypto firms, argued that despite being an early trailblazer in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space, Canada is “not competitive anymore.”
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“Unless Canada does something to move more towards a more favourable tax regime and regulatory regime, we’re going to continue to see an exodus of technology firms and companies to the [US] and to other jurisdictions,” he said on stage.
Fellow panellist Carlo Campisi, head of policy at Montréal crypto startup Shakepay, thinks Canada has “overindexed [on] consumer protection and risk aversion” at the expense of innovation and competition—priorities he said are mistakenly viewed as “mutually exclusive.”
However, there is also some cause for optimism beyond the Stablecoin Act. Campisi takes OSFI’s new pilot, fast-tracking the banking licence application process and opening it up to crypto companies, as another signal that this mindset is beginning to change.
Feature image courtesy Josh Scott for BetaKit.