The slow adoption of stablecoins in Canada has some local crypto industry observers concerned that the country is falling behind.
The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) classified stablecoins as “securities and/or derivatives” in December 2022 after the FTX debacle that shook markets and turned many lawmakers against the crypto industry.
Regulating stablecoins as a security has seen few local stablecoin issuers arise, but in the United States and the European Union, softening regulations have seen significant growth in the stablecoin market. This makes Canada, observers say, less competitive with other jurisdictions.
Of particular concern is the perceived gap in peer-to-peer (P2P) payments in Canada, which stablecoins are uniquely qualified to fill.
Stablecoins globally have grown significantly over the last five years. Source: DefiLlama
Local law constrains stablecoin growth and threatens dollar
In 2022, as the crypto market reeled from the collapse of FTX and the implosion of the Terra stablecoin system, regulators worldwide began to look more critically at the crypto space.
In Canada, the CSA updated regulations for crypto exchanges and brought stablecoins under its purview, classifying them as securities/derivatives. This hasn’t been a popular decision with Canada’s crypto industry.
Morva Rohani, founding managing director of the Canadian Web3 Council, told Cointelegraph that the CSA’s case-by-case basis for considering stablecoin issuers and the lack of a federal framework make for a “patchwork” regulatory regime.
“Canada’s reliance on securities law to regulate payment stablecoins introduces significant legal and operational uncertainty,” she said.
Tanim Rasul, chief operating officer of Canadian crypto exchange NDAX, said that the CSA “got it wrong,” stating that other regulatory frameworks, like the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) law, were more appropriate.
“I would just say, look at MiCA, look at the way they’re approaching stablecoins. It’s a payment instrument. It should be regulated as such,” he told a crowd at the Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto on May 13.
It’s not just the EU. Singapore and the UAE have also introduced regulatory frameworks for stablecoins, and US senators are optimistic they will pass a stablecoin law by May 26.
Rohani said Canada is “out of step with leading global jurisdictions […] which have adopted tailored, prudential frameworks that recognize stablecoins as payment instruments.”
This lack of alignment with other, more pro-stablecoin jurisdictions could have negative effects for the Canadian dollar (CAD), some worry.
Som Seif, founder of Canadian investment firm Purpose Financial, said that the proliferation of other major stablecoins, mostly denominated in the US dollar, could threaten the use of the loonie (a nickname for the Canadian dollar) at home.
“If Canada does not create the regulatory framework and environment that encourages the development of CAD stablecoins, consumers and businesses will default to using USD-pegged alternatives, eroding the relevance of CAD in global markets,” he said.
Stablecoins provide cheaper P2P payments but reputation is also a roadblock
Members of the Canadian crypto industry have stated that stablecoins have a role to play in the country as well, given the purported lack of P2P payment networks available in the country.
Speaking to Cointelegraph on May 13, Coinbase Canada CEO Lucas Matheson said, “It’s really important that we have a stablecoin for Canadians.” He said that the only options currently open were wire transfers, which “cost $45 and take 45 minutes of paperwork.”
Rohani said that Interac e-Transfer, a Canadian funds transfer service, “remains the primary domestic P2P rail, operating through banks and credit unions.”
Canada does have apps like PayPal and Wise, which support international P2P transfers, but those often come with high commissions and slow settlement times compared to stablecoins.
Rohani said that while some crypto platforms allow for P2P transfers, they’re not widely used due to a lack of integration into mainstream financial services.
Demand for more and different digital payment methods is growing in Canada, according to the 2024 digital payments report from Payments Canada, the owner and operator of Canada’s payment clearing and settlement infrastructure.
But that demand may not translate directly into stablecoins. Crypto’s “journey towards financial integration among Canadians remains a distant prospect,” the report reads. Some 91% of Canadians have never used crypto as a payment.
Ease of use and security were top priorities for international payment users. Source: Payments Canada
Payments Canada attributes the lack of interest to the assets being perceived as the “least secure payment method among Canadians compared to alternatives such as cash, credit cards, cheques, wire transfers and PayPal.”
Even in the context of a central bank digital currency, which the crypto industry generally regards as a less favorable option to private, fiat-denominated stablecoins, interest just isn’t there. The survey found that 85% of respondents “did not envision themselves using a digital Canadian dollar and preferred their existing payment methods.”
Is PM Carney pro-crypto?
If more tailor-made regulations could integrate stablecoins with the mainstream payment options Canadians are comfortable with, it would still take a concerted effort from policymakers in Ottawa, where the Liberals have just won the federal elections.
The crypto industry had cause for doubt. Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney has previously expressed skepticism about cryptocurrency. In a speech as Governor of the Bank of England, he said they had failed as money.
Still, he acknowledged stablecoins have a role to play in retail and wholesale payments. He said in 2021 that stablecoins should have access to central bank balance sheets — but only if strong protections were in place.
“There’s been two systemic crises in money funds in little more than a decade […] In baseball, it’s three strikes and you’re out. In cricket, it’s only the equivalent of one. For systemic payment systems, one is too many,” Carney stated.
Kohani said, “With Mark Carney at the helm of the Liberal Party, we anticipate a pragmatic but regulation-first approach to crypto and stablecoins.”
While his previous openness toward stablecoins suggests he’s open to the technology, he also “emphasizes the need for regulation, oversight and safeguards.”
Another Liberal term, per Kohani, will likely mean the CSA continues to lead enforcement but could result in broader policy work, including a framework on stablecoins, “particularly if positioned as a tool for payments modernization and maintaining the relevance of the Canadian dollar.”
It is “shameful” that black boys growing up in London are “far more likely” to die than white boys, Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley has told Sky News.
Sir Mark, who came out of retirement to become head of the UK’s largest police force in 2022, said: “We can’t pretend otherwise that we’ve got a history between policing and black communities where policing has got a lot wrong.
“And we get a lot more right today, but we do still make mistakes. That’s not in doubt. I’m being as relentless in that as it can be.”
He said the “vast majority” of the force are “good people”.
However, he added: “But that legacy, combined with the tragedy that some of this crime falls most heavily in black communities, that creates a real problem because the legacy creates concern.”
Sir Mark, who also leads the UK’s counter-terrorism policing, said it is “not right” that black boys growing up in London “are far more likely to be dead by the time they’re 18” than white boys.
“That’s, I think, shameful for the city,” he admitted.
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Baroness Casey was commissioned in 2021 to look into the Met Police after serving police officer Wayne Couzens abducted, raped and murdered Sarah Everard.
She pinned the primary blame for the Met’s culture on its past leadership and found that stop and search and the use of force against black people was excessive.
At the time, Sir Mark, who had been commissioner for six months when the report was published, said he would not use the labels of institutionally racist, institutionally misogynistic and institutionally homophobic, which Casey insisted the Met deserved.
However, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who helped hire Sir Mark – and could fire him – made it clear the commissioner agreed with Baroness Casey’s verdict.
After the report was released, Sir Mark said “institutional” was political language so he was not going to use it, but he accepted “we have racists, misogynists…systematic failings, management failings, cultural failings”.
A few months after the report, Sir Mark launched a two-year £366m plan to overhaul the Met, including increased emphasis on neighbourhood policing to rebuild public trust and plans to recruit 500 more community support officers and an extra 565 people to work with teams investigating domestic violence, sexual offences and child sexual abuse and exploitation.
Watch the full interview on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips from 8.30am on Sunday.
Labour’s largest union donor, Unite, has voted to suspend Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner over her role in the Birmingham bin strike row.
Members of the trade union, one of the UK’s largest, also “overwhelmingly” voted to “re-examine its relationship” with Labour over the issue.
They said Ms Rayner, who is also housing, communities and local government secretary, Birmingham Council’s leader, John Cotton, and other Labour councillors had been suspended for “bringing the union into disrepute”.
There was confusion over Ms Rayner’s membership of Unite, with her office having said she was no longer a member and resigned months ago and therefore could not be suspended.
But Unite said she was registered as a member. Parliament’s latest register of interests had her down as a member in May.
The union said an emergency motion was put to members at its policy conference in Brighton on Friday.
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Unite is one of the Labour Party’s largest union donors, donating £414,610 in the first quarter of 2025 – the highest amount in that period by a union, company or individual.
The union condemned Birmingham’s Labour council and the government for “attacking the bin workers”.
Mountains of rubbish have been piling up in the city since January after workers first went on strike over changes to their pay, with all-out strike action starting in March. An agreement has still not been made.
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Ms Rayner and the councillors had their membership suspended for “effectively firing and rehiring the workers, who are striking over pay cuts of up to £8,000”, the union added.
‘Missing in action’
General secretary Sharon Graham told Sky News on Saturday morning: “Angela Rayner, who has the power to solve this dispute, has been missing in action, has not been involved, is refusing to come to the table.”
She had earlier said: “Unite is crystal clear, it will call out bad employers regardless of the colour of their rosette.
“Angela Rayner has had every opportunity to intervene and resolve this dispute but has instead backed a rogue council that has peddled lies and smeared its workers fighting huge pay cuts.
“The disgraceful actions of the government and a so-called Labour council, is essentially fire and rehire and makes a joke of the Employment Relations Act promises.
“People up and down the country are asking whose side is the Labour government on and coming up with the answer not workers.”
Image: Piles of rubbish built up around Birmingham because of the strike over pay
Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said the government’s “priority is and always has been the residents of Birmingham”.
He said the decision by Unite workers to go on strike had “caused disruption” to the city.
“We’ve worked to clean up streets and remain in close contact with the council […] as we support its recovery,” he added.
A total of 800 Unite delegates voted on the motion.
Binance co-founder CZ has dismissed a Bloomberg report linking him to the Trump-backed USD1 stablecoin, threatening legal action over alleged defamation.