- Soon after obtaining a formal license to conduct business in Canada, Coinbase intends to launch a stablecoin pegged to the Canadian dollar on its platform.
- The company announced on Twitter on Monday that it had included QCAD (QCAD), a stablecoin pegged to the Canadian dollar that was “re-launched” by Stablecorp, a fintech startup based in Canada, to its listing roadmap.
Like Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC), two other well-known stablecoins, QCAD maintains its peg with complete backing from reserves equivalent to or more than the total amount of tokens created.
These tokens, according to Stablecorp, are backed by cash and financial equivalents, and their reserve status is confirmed by monthly attestation reports. According to its most recent attestation report from February 2024, Stablecorp had reserves of CAD $200,903.18, yet there were only 169,303.77 QCAD in circulation.
That is insignificant in comparison to stablecoin behemoths like USDT and USDC, whose combined token holdings are valued over $140 billion USD and are dispersed across the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
According to Coinbase’s blog post about impending listings, “Our goal is to list every asset that meets our standards for legal, compliance, and technical security.” These criteria don’t account for a project’s market capitalization or level of popularity.
Onboarding Coinbase, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the US and the only company of its sort to go public, could therefore be beneficial for adoption.
According to Alex McDougall, CEO of Stablecorp, last year, “the timing is perfect to bring Canadians a transparent, efficient stablecoin,” with more regulatory certainty from the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA).
The CSA published guidelines to cryptocurrency trading platforms shortly after the collapse of FTX and Terra in 2022, setting a high standard for stablecoins or other pegged assets to be listed. Algorithmic stablecoins were utterly rejected, and reserves of “highly liquid assets” with “qualified custodians” would be necessary for stablecoins.
Strict guidelines played a part in Binance’s complete exit from the country as well as Kraken and Coinbase’s delisting of USDT and Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) from their platforms.
But this month, Coinbase became the first foreign cryptocurrency exchange to register as a “restricted dealer” in Canada, indicating that it complied with regulations to a sufficient degree.
In contrast to U.S. regulators, the business has frequently praised Canadian officials for their cooperation with the cryptocurrency industry. For instance, Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance are presently being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for violating securities laws.
The company stated last month that it has worked with Canadian banks, investment advisors, and pension funds to show how committed we are to helping them successfully navigate the rapidly changing world of digital assets.
Disclaimer : This article was created for informational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice. An asset’s past performance does not predict its future returns. Before making an investment, please conduct your own research, as digital assets like cryptocurrencies are highly risky and volatile financial instruments.
