Loon CEO on CADC growth in evolving stablecoin market

Calgary-based FinTech Loon's CADC, a Canadian dollar-tethered stablecoin, has received Ontario approval to distribute nationwide.

Late last month, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) published Loon's final prospectus, enabling the distribution of CADC Tokens in each province and territory of Canada. The announcement comes a year after Loon raised CAD $3 million in pre-seed funding to expand CADC into its goal of a highly liquid, cross-border payment rail.

"It's funny because a year ago, this time, the Stablecoin Act didn't exist. So we thought Canada needed stablecoin regulation as of October [2025]," said Kevin Zhang, Co-Founder and CEO of Loon. "We raised that $3 million when we sort of started CADC as a project [but] we had no idea the Stablecoin Act was coming out, so that was a huge validation of what we were doing and acknowledgement that we were headed towards the right direction."

Paytrie launched CADC in 2021 as an internal experiment. It was offloaded to a spun-out company, now Loon, which would be led by Zhang, who co-founded Paytrie with Henry Chan (also COO of Loon). While CADC can still be purchased on Paytrie, the platform no longer issues it.

For every CADC token purchased, a dollar is deposited into a segregated reserve trust account held at ATB Financial. The prospectus also allowed Paytrie to distribute CADC using Interac e-Transfers after receiving time-limited exemptive relief from the OSC.

Zhang said the stablecoin has about CAD $2 million in assets under management, with close to CAD $1 billion in on-chain volume. 

Stablecoins are a growing market in Canada, with CADC among the original Canadian stablecoins issued on the market. Tetra's CADD and Stablecorp's QCAD are arguably the main competitors.

QCAD was first introduced in February 2020 as a joint venture between the cryptoasset manager 3iQ and blockchain developer Mavennet Systems through Canada Stablecorp Inc. 

Tetra Digital Group launched CADD in May 2026, backed 1:1 by Canadian dollars held in trust. Its backers include Wealthsimple, ATB Financial, National Bank of Canada and Shopify.

Last month, the Department of Finance established a federal framework for fiat-backed stablecoins through the Stablecoin Act, and more recently published draft Stablecoin Regulations for public consultation ending December 23, 2026, with full implementation targeted for fall of next year.

"The absence of regulatory requirements and supervisory oversight of stablecoin issuers that have interprovincial and international applications creates risks for Canadians, and reduces confidence in stablecoins as a reliable method of digital payments," a statement from the Department of Finance read.

The rules were announced just days after the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released its GENIUS Act stablecoin rules.

For Zhang, stablecoins need to operate in an environment that matches other countries' regulations, such as USD-tethered options regulated by Canadian authorities, for the country to stay ahead in the market.

"We, as a stablecoin company, we as a technology company, we can't sit still for two years to wait for regulation to sort of essentially catch up to the technology. We've sort of made a commitment to work with the securities regulators during this time, to establish stablecoin regulation in Canada, and have a process to distribute regulated Canadian dollars stablecoins to Canadians in a way that stablecoins should be s distributed and used, and not encumbered by typical securities regulation," said Zhang.

While the Canadian Securities Administrators Passport System, a regulatory framework allowing market participants, issuers, and registrants to deal with a single "principal regulator" for prospectuses, came into effect in 2008, Ontario only committed to join in July of this year.

When Zhang and his team started conversations with the OSC in 2020, they were punted to the Alberta Securities Commission, with a recommendation that the company work closer to its headquarters in Alberta. This would have meant that, upon ASC approval, they could distribute nationwide except in Ontario, which would have required another prospectus submission to the OSC. In the end, the ASC recommended Loon work back with the Ontario commission, which Zhang said the team was content with as it grants distribution across the country.

With the final prospectus now public, Zhang and his team are focusing on new capabilities.

"We'll be adding more products in the coming months that will sort of supplement revenue, including lending and borrowing markets," he said. "Being able to borrow CADC against your other digital assets, which could be quite interesting, especially when previously you can only borrow U.S. dollar stablecoins, and if you're borrowing U.S. dollar stable coins, but you're paying for something in Canadian dollars, for example, a down payment, a car ... you don't want to be paying for something in one currency and owing it in another currency because then once the rates change, you could be you end up paying a lot more for your loan."