CADD, a payment stablecoin backed 1:1 by Canadian dollars, is now live on Tempo. Issued by Tetra Trust Company via its agent CAD Digital Inc., CADD is the first Canadian dollar stablecoin issued by a regulated financial institution. Explore the Tempo ecosystem →
CADD has received regulatory approval from Alberta Treasury Board and Finance, a national first for digital asset infrastructure in Canada. It enables Canadian dollars to move on blockchain rails under a financial services regulatory framework, and it is now live on Tempo.
Why CADD matters
Canada clears roughly $424 billion per business day, with retail payments still largely reliant on batch-based infrastructure first implemented in the 1980s. The Canadian dollar is one of the most traded currencies globally, yet there has not been a widely adopted, production-scaled, CAD-denominated digital asset payment rail. Stablecoin adoption to date has been dominated by US dollar-denominated assets, leaving Canadian businesses and institutions without a competitive domestic option.
CADD is designed to address that need. All funds used to mint CADD are held in trust and dedicated exclusively to redemption, aligning the program with institutional expectations around asset protection, transparency, and compliance. The model is built for banks, payment service providers, and fintech platforms that require regulatory clarity from the outset.
CADD launches with institutional scale from day one, backed by a consortium of leading Canadian financial institutions and technology companies including Tetra Digital Group, Urbana Corporation, Wealthsimple, Purpose Unlimited, Shakepay, ATB Financial, National Bank of Canada, and Shopify.
What CADD enables on Tempo
CADD brings Canadian dollars onto continuous, programmable networks with near-instant settlement finality. For Canadian institutions, that unlocks use cases that were previously difficult and impractical to execute on existing Canadian rails:
- 24/7 cross-border settlement
- Real-time corporate treasury transfers
- Programmable payments for marketplace payouts
- Direct settlement between fintech partners without correspondent banking delays
“This milestone reflects the strong collaboration with Alberta’s government, industry partners and regulators to bring a compliant and scalable Canadian-dollar stablecoin to market,” said Didier Lavallée, Founder and CEO of Tetra Digital Group. “CADD is issued by a regulated financial institution, with reserves held in Canada and compliance built in from day one by a firm with Canada’s longest track record of operating regulated digital asset infrastructure. It enables faster and more efficient movement of Canadian dollars on-chain within a structure institutions recognize.”
About Tetra Digital Group
Tetra Digital Group is Canada’s leading institutional digital technology and financial services provider, parent company of Tetra Trust, Tetra Unity, and CAD Digital. Tetra Trust was Canada’s first regulated digital asset custodian and supported the first staking-enabled Ethereum and Solana ETFs in Canada.
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If you’re evaluating stablecoins for global payments, treasury operations, or settlement, get in touch.
