Tetra Trust Company, a Canadian digital technology and financial services provider, has launched CADD, a Canadian dollar stablecoin approved by the Alberta Treasury and Finance Board.
The company said it is the first CAD-pegged stablecoin issued by a regulated financial institution in Canada. The reserves are held in trust under Canadian law and dedicated for redemption, according to the company. The token is active on major blockchains including Base, Ethereum, and Tempo, with support from Solana planned.
Tetra, based in Calgary, Alberta, raised $10 million for the project in September 2025, with backing from Shopify, Wealthsimple, Purpose Unlimited, Shakepay, ATB Financial, National Bank of Canada and Urbana Corporation, which holds a majority stake. The same consortium is also supporting the launch.
In December, Tetra carried out testnet transactions between Wealthsimple and National Bank. The transfer was the first time a Canadian stablecoin had moved between two financial institutions, the company said.
Tetra has positioned CADD for institutional use cases, including 24/7 cross-border settlement, real-time corporate cash transfers, programmable in-market payments, and direct settlement between fintechs without the delays of correspondent banking.
A $320 billion market
This launch comes as no surprise, as the stablecoin sector has grown exponentially in recent years, but has lacked a meaningful, regulated Canadian counterpart.
Canada generates about $424 billion per business day on existing rails that still rely on batch infrastructure first deployed in the 1980s, the company said. As the United States works to grow the stablecoin sector through regulation, Canadian companies have not had a domestic option to move Canadian dollars onto blockchains, leaving USD-denominated stablecoins to dominate.
Global stablecoin transaction volume exceeded $27 trillion in 2025, surpassing Visa’s annual payment volume. The current market cap of stablecoins is $320 billion, with the lion’s share accounted for by USD stablecoins, according to DeFiLlama.
Meanwhile, the country’s competitive environment is restricted.
Stablecorp, backed by Coinbase Ventures, filed a preliminary prospectus for QCAD with the Ontario Securities Commission in June last year and received final approval in December. The token is not yet widely available.
There’s also Loon, a Calgary company spun off from Paytrie in October, which is taking over CADC, a stablecoin launched in 2021 that has processed more than $200 million in volume. Loon raised $3 million in pre-seed and pre-filed a prospectus with the Alberta Securities Commission.
Tetra Trust was the first regulated digital asset custodian in Canada and provides custody of the country’s first staking-compatible ether and solana ETFs.
