Canadian dollar-backed stablecoin built on Ethereum blockchain goes live

Canada Stablecorp Inc., a joint venture between 3iQ and Mavennet Systems, has announced the launch of the first Canadian dollar-backed stablecoin – QCAD. According to the official press release, QCAD is built on the Ethereum blockchain by utilizing the ERC-20 standard.

Currently, the newly launched stablecoin is available for trading against Bitcoin, Ether, and USDC. Elaborating more on the first Canadian dollar-backed stablecoin built on the Ethereum blockchain, Jean Desgagne, CEO of Canada Stablecorp, stated,

“We are excited to be creating an important piece of financial market infrastructure for Canada that will serve the digitization of capital markets and provide a robust payment and settlement solution. QCAD represents a significant opportunity to set a new standard of transparency and auditability in digital currencies and will help drive trust and mass adoption of stablecoins.”

Following the development, Kesem Frank, President of Mavennet Systems, asserted that QCAD is a “stepping stone” for the Canadian financial market as it would establish an “imperative link” to the world of digital assets.

QCAD will be traded on five Canadian crypto-exchanges, namely, DVeX, Newton, Bitvo, Netcoins, and Coinsmart. Additionally, the open finance platform, Gilded, will enable enterprise adoption of QCAD through integrated payments and accounting solutions.

The development in question comes days after the World Economic Forum in Davos announced the formation of a Global Consortium to focus on providing a framework capable of governing digital currencies, including stablecoins like Tether and USDC.

In fact, the Bank of Canada recently revealed joining six other central banks to work towards the prospect of introducing a central bank digital currency [CBDC]. According to the document, the group of central banks would essentially assess factors such as CBDC use cases, economic, functional and technical design choices, including cross-border interoperability, and the sharing of knowledge on emerging technologies.