Calgary company launches Canadian dollar-backed stablecoin approved by Alberta's regulator

CALGARY — A Calgary-based fintech company has launched the first Canadian dollar-backed stablecoin issued by a financial institution after receiving regulatory approval from the Alberta Treasury Board and Finance.Tetra Digital Group announced Monday that its digitized dollar — named CADD — will operate under a different regulatory framework from competitors, making it easier for businesses and consumers to adopt it for payments.Stablecoins are a form of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a stable value by being pegged one-to-one with a currency such as the US dollar or a commodity and enable instant payments, which can reduce the time and cost of cross-border transactions.The announcement marks a first for digital asset infrastructure in Canada by enabling Canadian dollars to move on blockchain rails under a financial services regulatory framework.“This milestone reflects the strong collaboration with Alberta’s government, industry partners, and regulators to bring a compliant and scalable Canadian-dollar stablecoin to market,” Didier Lavellée, founder and CEO of Tetra, said.“CADD is issued by a regulated financial institution, with reserves held in Canada and compliance built in from day one by a firm with Canada’s longest track record of operating regulated digital asset infrastructure. It enables faster and more efficient movement of Canadian dollars on-chain within a structure institutions recognize.”According to Tetra’s official press release, “Canada clears roughly $424 billion per business day, with retail payments still largely reliant on batch-based infrastructure first implemented in the 1980s.”It adds that even though the Canadian dollar is one of the most traded currencies globally, there is still “no widely adopted, production-scaled, CAD-denominated digital asset payment rail.”.Central banks express expectations and doubts on their own digital currencies.CADD will bring the Canadian currency onto continuous, programmable networks with near-instant settlement finality and is now live on blockchain networks such as Base, Ethereum, and Tempo, and will soon be live on Solana.Internationally, stablecoins have been gaining traction since Visa began settling transactions in USD Coin (USDC) in late 2025.Mastercard also expanded stablecoin settlement across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, with global stablecoin transaction volume surpassing $27 trillion in 2025, exceeding Visa’s annual payment volume.The Globe and Mail reports that more Canadian companies are looking to modernize payments and adopt stablecoin technology but are currently predominantly doing so with US currency being the dollar of choice, something that Felipe Priuli, Tetra’s program director for CADD, believes “limits the demand for Canadian dollars.”Priuli also stated that while other Canadian stablecoins do exist, their status as securities limits their adoption by more businesses.“Everyone that wants to interact with the token… They risk being seen as a securities dealer,” he said.CADD is backed by a group of major Canadian financial players, including Urbana Corporation, Wealthsimple, Purpose Unlimited, Shakepay, ATB Financial, National Bank of Canada, and Shopify.“With Shopify, for example, you pretty much access every merchant in Canada,” Priuli said.“In terms of demand, I think it’ll mostly come from business-to-business transactions from the get-go.”

Calgary company launches Canadian dollar-backed stablecoin approved by Alberta's regulator

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