Coinbase's Canada Problem: Why Regulators Need to Get Their Act Together

Coinbase wants to do in Canada what it does everywhere else: become the "Everything Exchange." Derivatives. Tokenized assets. DeFi. The works. Problem is, Canada's regulatory system seems designed to make that as difficult as possible.

Eric Richmond, Coinbase Canada's CEO, made his case at the Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto: permanent rules, not temporary exemptions. Right now, the country operates on what you might call a patchwork approach. Multiple provincial securities regulators. No national framework. Interim accommodations that expire. It's the kind of setup that forces companies to either wait around indefinitely or go shopping for workarounds.

Take lending products. Coinbase Canada can offer customers roughly 3 percent on USDC—but only because they've got an exemption from the Canadian Securities Administrators. Meanwhile, American customers on Coinbase One are getting around 7 percent on stablecoin lending. The math is straightforward: regulatory friction kills innovation. Or at least delays it.

The situation gets messier when you look at derivatives. Coinbase Financial Markets, the company's CFTC-regulated U.S. arm, just secured an international exemption to offer futures contracts to Canadian clients. Live within weeks, Richmond said. But here's the catch: that's only for "permitted" clients. Retail? They'd need a separate approval process. In America, retail expansion just happens naturally once you're licensed. In Canada, you get to negotiate separately.

What's changed recently is the Stablecoin Act. It got Royal Assent in 2026 and is rolling out now. That's genuinely new ground—Canada's first purpose-built legal framework for crypto assets. Tetra Trust, backed by Wealthsimple, Shopify, and National Bank of Canada, already launched CADD, the first regulated Canadian-dollar stablecoin. Richmond called the legislation "very good," which is code for: it's a start, but nowhere near enough.

Compare this to the U.S. American regulators have already issued detailed guidance on tokenized securities, custody arrangements, and capital treatment. They're ahead on standards. They're ahead on predictability. Companies building in America don't have to navigate a dozen different provincial regimes. They have one federal system, love it or hate it.

Richmond's proposal is clean: codify existing practices into a "national instrument." Get all the provinces and territories to adopt the same rulebook. Move away from exemptions toward permanent legislation designed specifically for digital assets. It would signal that Canada is serious about competing globally, not just administering status quo.

The irony is that Canada's regulatory fragmentation actually creates a barrier to entry lower than the U.S. system in some ways—but it's the wrong kind of low barrier. It's the barrier of chaos, not clarity. Companies like Coinbase can survive chaos. They have the lawyers. What they can't do is scale products when they don't know what's legal next year. That costs money. It kills competitiveness.

Whether Canadian policymakers will actually push through a national framework is the real question. If they don't, expect more of this: Canadian users paying less, accessing fewer products, and watching the innovation happen somewhere else.

Source & further reading:

• Coinbase wants to be Canada’s ‘everything exchange,’ but says clearer rules are needed first — CoinDesk
• 'Anything remotely dovish' from Fed could be good for bitcoin, says analyst — CoinDesk
• Ondo drops tokenized asset blockchain plans for private, high-speed trading network — CoinDesk
• Wall Street veteran Don Wilson says regulators are getting perps all wrong — CoinDesk
• BlackRock, Fidelity, other Wall Street giants back the Clarity Act — CoinDesk
• Coinbase plans to launch crypto derivatives for Canadian clients within weeks — Wealth Professional
• Coinbase Canada seeks to build 'everything exchange' as new CEO plans first crypto futures offering — The Globe and Mail
• Canada's crypto realignment: focus on stablecoins and global tax transparency — Lexology
• Canada's Crypto Regulation in 2026: What the New Rules Mean for Global Operators — Analytics Insight
• Canada's First Regulated Canadian Dollar Stablecoin Lands on Base — Coin Central