Calgary-based Tetra Trust is one step closer to launching its Canadian dollar-backed stablecoin.
“[This is] a meaningful step towards bringing digital efficiency to an environment built on trust and Canadian sovereignty.”
In September, looking to expand beyond its roots as a regulated cryptocurrency custodian, Tetra Trust formed a new parent company that raised $10-million CAD to launch a stablecoin called CADD.
Stablecoins are a form of digital currency that are pegged to a traditional fiat currency, typically the United States dollar. In response to industry demands and similar legislation in the US, the federal government recently revealed a draft framework to regulate stablecoin issuers in Canada.
This week, Tetra said that CADD has been successfully tested in a controlled, proof-of-concept environment, paving the way for a launch in Q1 2026. Tetra claimed the tests made CADD the first Canadian-dollar stablecoin to move between two financial institutions, successfully transferring between National Bank and Wealthsimple (Hanna Zaidi, vice-president of payments strategy & chief compliance officer at Wealthsimple, sits on BetaKit’s board).
The tests highlight CADD’s potential to streamline payments and settlement while “preserving the safeguards that underpin Canada’s financial system,” Tetra Digital Group founder and CEO Didier Lavallée said in a statement.
“It’s a meaningful step towards bringing digital efficiency to an environment built on trust and Canadian sovereignty,” Lavallée added.
Tetra said CADD will be backed one-to-one by Canadian dollars held domestically under Canadian law and built on institutional-grade custody, settlement, and compliance infrastructure through Tetra.
While Tetra says CADD is designed to be the first fully regulated Canadian stablecoin issued by a financial institution, there are competitors in the works. Toronto-based Stablecorp recently claimed its QCAD cryptocurrency is the first Canadian dollar-linked stablecoin to receive regulatory approval. Stablecorp CEO Kesem Frank told BetaKit in November that the QCAD Digital Trust complies with the Canadian Securities Administrators’ existing framework, which was published in 2023, while it awaits Canada’s new stablecoin strategy.
London-based Schedule I chartered bank VersaBank is taking a different approach to a similar end, issuing digital deposit receipts called Real Bank Deposit Tokens. VersaBank founder and CEO David Taylor claimed that its product is a superior and more secure version of the “so-called stablecoin” in a September interview with BetaKit.
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Tetra said it is expanding its CADD design partner program with new participants beyond its initial investors to help build and evaluate new use cases for CADD. The new partners include Canadian FinTech firms like Aquanow, Capco, Cybrid, Float Financial, KOHO, Sling Money, Tempo, and WealthONE.
“As a design partner, we’re focused on how a regulated CAD stablecoin like CADD could strengthen liquidity operations across the Canadian market,” Aquanow head of trading Adrian Seto said in a statement. “The ability to move value with certainty, reduce intraday funding gaps, and simplify reconciliation has clear potential to enhance institutional workflows.”
Disclosure: Wealthsimple vice-president of payments strategy and chief compliance officer, Hanna Zaidi, sits on BetaKit’s board of directors.
Feature image courtesy Tetra Trust.