Deloitte Canada and Toronto-based fintech Stablecorp are working together to build stablecoin infrastructure for Canadian financial institutions that would integrate Stablecorp’s Canadian-dollar stablecoin, QCAD, into institutional payment and settlement workflows, the firms said Monday.
Stablecorp issues QCAD, a fiat-backed token pegged to the Canadian dollar. Soumak Chatterjee, a partner in Deloitte Canada’s financial services division, said the project is intended to help banks and other institutions prepare for broader stablecoin adoption once a regulatory framework is in place. The partners cited potential use cases such as around-the-clock payments, faster settlement, blockchain-based recordkeeping and new financial products enabled by tokenized infrastructure. They did not name any bank partners or provide a rollout schedule.
The collaboration arrives as the federal government advances a proposed national stablecoin regime under Bill C-15, a budget implementation bill introduced in November. The policy shift follows broader debate in Canada about digital assets: former Bank of England governor and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has in recent comments acknowledged that digital-asset technologies could enhance financial stability, improve payment efficiency and have other applications, even after earlier skepticism about crypto.
The Bank of Canada has urged clearer stablecoin rules to modernize payment systems, arguing any framework should require stablecoins to be fully backed by high-quality liquid assets and redeemable at par, and warning that regulatory delays could leave Canada lagging other jurisdictions. The push for clearer rules mirrors regulatory momentum elsewhere, including the passage of the GENIUS Act in the United States last summer.
Canada’s market for Canadian-dollar stablecoins remains small compared with the U.S. dollar segment, where Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC dominate global supply and usage. The Bank of Canada abandoned plans for a central bank digital currency in September 2024 after more than seven years of research and a public consultation that attracted nearly 90,000 responses.
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