Canada’s Quiet Rise as a Crypto Leader
TORONTO — While the United States continues to wrestle with crypto regulation, Canada has quietly built one of the most advanced digital asset frameworks in the world. With a decade-long head start, a maturing regulatory environment, and a welcoming business climate, Canada has become a beacon for blockchain innovation—and Wall Street is starting to follow the light.
Canada’s journey began in 2014 with anti-money laundering (AML) guidelines, placing the country among the first to regulate the crypto space. Since then, lawmakers have refined the rules, offering firms a clear, evolving regulatory path. In contrast, U.S. crypto legislation has remained mired in political gridlock, despite growing support from both the White House and a Republican-controlled Congress.
This difference in approach is positioning Canada—and Toronto in particular—as a global hub for crypto dealmaking and innovation.
Robinhood Bets Big on Canada’s Crypto Market
Robinhood’s recent $180 million acquisition of WonderFi, a Canadian firm that owns Bitbuy and Coinsquare, underscores the country’s appeal. With some of the oldest crypto licenses in Canada, WonderFi offers Robinhood instant credibility and access to a growing user base.
“Canada is a very attractive market for us,” said Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood’s crypto chief. “It’s projected to be more than 30 million users using crypto here in Canada, with revenue projections of about $900 million in 2025.”
Robinhood’s move reflects a broader trend: major firms are looking to tap into Canada’s regulated, fertile crypto environment while U.S. authorities remain divided on how to oversee the industry.
From Toronto to Nasdaq: Canadian Firms Eye U.S. Listings
Many Canadian crypto firms are now using their Toronto Stock Exchange credentials as springboards to American markets. Galaxy Digital, the investment giant founded by Mike Novogratz, is headquartered in New York but chose to list in Canada because it couldn’t go public in the U.S. That’s about to change—Galaxy will make its long-awaited debut on the Nasdaq on Friday.
Other companies are following a similar path. DeFi Technologies, which calls itself the “Strategy of Solana,” is planning a U.S. listing after launching in Canada.
“A lot of companies have started on the Toronto Stock Exchange and are trying to uplist into the Nasdaq,” said Nathan Allman, CEO of Ondo Finance. “I think we’re going to see more of that.”
$100 Billion Blockchain Bet Unveiled in Toronto
At Consensus 2025, one of the world’s largest crypto conferences held this year in Toronto, JPMorgan, Ondo, and Chainlink made waves by announcing a $100 billion platform to tokenize real-world assets. The project combines JPMorgan’s Kinexys Digital Payments network with Ondo’s blockchain infrastructure, allowing assets like treasuries to be tokenized and settled on-chain.
“It’s really the first time that there’s been this interoperability between a bank’s permissioned blockchain environment and a public blockchain,” Allman said.
This landmark collaboration underscores how major financial institutions are now taking tokenization seriously—and how Canada’s regulatory clarity provides fertile ground for such bold initiatives.
U.S. Inches Toward Reform, But Uncertainty Remains
South of the border, the regulatory picture is finally starting to shift. Under President Donald Trump, federal agencies have rolled back restrictive crypto guidance. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Federal Reserve are easing limitations on banks handling digital assets, and the Securities and Exchange Commission recently rescinded a rule that forced companies to count client-held crypto as liabilities on their balance sheets.
The SEC also launched a new Crypto Task Force to solicit input from stakeholders. “They want large enterprises like Citi to have a seat at the table,” said Ryan Rugg, global head of digital assets for Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions. “They’re asking for our opinion, where I think in the past, it was not quite the case.”
Even so, progress is uneven. A bipartisan stablecoin regulation bill failed to pass the Senate, with Democratic lawmakers citing national security concerns and alleged conflicts of interest involving the president’s ties to crypto.
Big Tech and Fintech Keep Pushing Forward
Despite political hurdles, payment giants are doubling down. Mastercard announced a new partnership with Moonpay that allows customers to use debit cards for stablecoin transactions. PayPal, meanwhile, is teaming up with AI platform Perplexity to offer chat-powered shopping—and possibly crypto payments using PayPal stablecoins.
“We are trying to make sure that PayPal and Venmo are the gateway products to get more people into crypto,” said Jose Fernandez da Ponte, PayPal’s senior vice president of blockchain, crypto, and digital currencies. “A lot of people get into crypto through us, and that leads us to continue to add tokens.”
Kerbrat, speaking about Robinhood’s strategy, said the U.S. debate over regulation marks a welcome shift. “This debate here in the U.S. is really important—it shows that we want to embrace the technology instead of just regulating it and turning it off like it was before,” he said.
Robinhood’s vision extends far beyond retail trading. “We think at Robinhood that it is actually the future, and we can bring a lot more traditional assets on-chain using tokenization,” Kerbrat added.
Looking Ahead
The crypto industry’s center of gravity may still be forming, but one thing is clear: Canada’s foresight and firm regulatory stance have made it a magnet for innovation. As U.S. regulators begin to catch up, the lessons from north of the border could shape the future of global digital finance.
