Stablecorp, a leading Canadian fintech firm and digital money infrastructure player, announced today that it recently received $1.8 million in strategic growth capital from Coinbase Ventures, Side Door Ventures and certain other existing investors.
QCAD, a Canadian Dollar denominated stablecoin will continue growing its role as a tool to reduce cost and frictions for domestic and global payments, on-chain FX and digital asset transactions. And Stablecorp is deploying the capital to aid in proliferating the rails required to support a CAD denominated stablecoin including fostering deep, liquid on-chain FX markets and advanced payment rail integrations. These are critical for the growth of real economic use cases such as cross-border payments, remittances and global trade finance.
What the funding will be used for: This funding is being used to significantly enhance the feature set and structure of QCAD and its associated digital money infrastructure. These investors have also received warrants for the purchase of additional equity at a higher valuation.
To support this growth, QCAD is going through a structural evolution which. And when completed, it will include:
1.) Reserve assets held by an arms-length trust known as the QCAD Digital Currency Trust (QDCT) with an independent Trustee
2.) Daily reporting of market value of reserves, monthly independent attestations of reserves and public annual audited statements of QDCT
3.) Direct redemption right by Qualified Holders of QCAD to the underlying Reserve Assets
These parties agree with the statements made by the Division of Corporate Finance of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission affirming its view that the offer and sale of “Covered Stablecoins” does not involve the offer and sale of securities within the meaning of applicable U.S. securities laws and note that this should also be the case in Canada.
Both parties also see a Canadian stablecoin as critical path technology for Canada, and will work to bring this product to market as efficiently as possible.
KEY QUOTES:
“Stablecoins are the most efficient rail ever devised to move money both domestically and globally and it’s time that Canadians get the benefit of this financial services superconductor. The Canadian dollar quietly punches well above its weight as a global currency. It is the 5th highest held global reserve currency, our trade with the US is the most active cross border corridor in the world and our currency is the 7th highest used in FX. The time to digitize all this commerce was yesterday and we’re thrilled to be working with a global leader like Coinbase to make this happen.”
Alex McDougall, President of Stablecorp
“In the last 12 months, stablecoins traded 30 trillion dollars in transfer volume, nearly 3x that of the Visa network. Canada, like everyone else in this world, needs to embrace stablecoins and take full advantage. Canada is not currently set up for success and that’s why we’re excited about this partnership with Stablecorp to move us in the right direction.”
Lucas Matheson CEO of Coinbase Canada
