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Canada enacted its first purpose-built stablecoin law, the Stablecoin Act (via Bill C-15), on 26 March 2026, designating the Bank of Canada as prudential supervisor of fiat-backed stablecoin issuers; the regime is enacted but not yet in force pending Governor-in-Council order and implementing regulations, expected around 2027.
Outlook
Bank of Canada supervision of fiat-backed stablecoin issuers under the Stablecoin Act is expected to become operative via a future order-in-council, with the regime projected to be stable after 2027. Implementing regulations for the Stablecoin Act are expected via the Canada Gazette over the next twelve to eighteen months. Proposed amendments expanding the RPAA's payment-function definition to bring digital-asset custody providers within registration scope are similarly expected around 2027, though the date carries a year-scale uncertainty band. The pending scope expansion signals that Canada is moving to bring crypto-custody activity within mainstream payment-service registration rather than establishing a separate crypto-specific licensing track.
Stablecoins & Digital Money
Canada's Stablecoin Act, part of Bill C-15, received Royal Assent on 26 March 2026, establishing Bank of Canada registration, 1:1 reserve backing, at-par redemption, disclosure, and AML/ATF obligations for fiat-backed stablecoin issuers (wpm-2026-W32-004). This is an Assessed-confidence finding: no Tier-1 or Tier-2 Bank of Canada primary source for the Act's text was retrieved this cycle, so the finding is capped at Assessed despite corroboration across secondary legal-commentary sources on the Royal Assent date and substantive terms.
The Bank of Canada is designated as the primary supervisor of stablecoin issuers under the Act, a mandate that sits alongside its existing RPAA administration role and gives the central bank a second, parallel payments-supervisory function (wpm-2026-W32-005). Critically, the Act is enacted but not yet in force: implementing regulations and the Governor-in-Council order needed to operationalise it are expected only around 2027. This creates a defined multi-year gap between legislative enactment and supervisory enforceability, during which fiat-backed stablecoin issuance in Canada continues to be governed only by the lighter-touch interim guidance previously applicable to virtual-currency-related activities.
The clearest commercial signal of market readiness for this eventual regime is the launch of CADD, Canada's first CAD-backed stablecoin issued by a regulated financial institution, timed to coincide with the Stablecoin Act's enactment (wpm-2026-W32-007). The issuing institution is not named in the underlying source, and the launch is reported at Assessed confidence from a single Tier-3 practice-guide citation, with the underlying commercial event coded as completed but with amount_disclosed set to false.
Outlook
Watch for the Governor-in-Council order and implementing regulations that would bring the Stablecoin Act into force, expected around 2027, and for whether the Bank of Canada issues any interim supervisory guidance for fiat-backed stablecoin issuers ahead of that date. Confirmation of the CADD issuer's identity would sharpen the market-structure read on Canada's earliest bank-issued stablecoin product.
Sources and findings (4)
- T1https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/programs/financial-sector-policy/canadas-stablecoin-framework.htmlretrieved
- T2https://www.blg.com/en/insights/2025/11/in-search-of-stability-canada-introduces-new-stablecoin-actretrieved
- T2https://www.fasken.com/en/knowledge/2026/04/fintrac-provides-information-on-recent-changes-to-canadas-aml-regimeretrieved
- T1https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/programs/financial-sector-policy/canadas-stablecoin-framework.htmlretrieved