Tetra Launches Canadian-Dollar Stablecoin to Power Cross-Border Payments

Tetra Digital Group has launched a payment stablecoin backed 1:1 by Canadian dollars after receiving regulatory approval from Alberta Treasury Board and Finance.

The CADD stablecoin is now live on Base, Ethereum and Tempo, and it will soon be live on Solana, the company said in a Monday (May 4) press release.

The launch was announced by Tetra Trust Company via its agent CAD Digital. Tetra Digital Group is the parent company of both of those entities, according to the release.

Tetra Digital Group Founder and CEO Didier Lavallée said in the release that debut of this Canadian-dollar stablecoin resulted from the company’s collaboration with Alberta’s government, industry partners and regulators.

“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,” Lavallée said. “It enables faster and more efficient movement of Canadian dollars on-chain within a structure institutions recognize.”

Because it is denominated in Canadian dollars and governed under Canadian law, CADD enables institutional use cases such as 24/7 cross-border settlement, real-time corporate treasury transfers, programmable payments for marketplace payouts and direct settlement between FinTech partners without correspondent banking delays, per the release.

Tetra Digital Group announced in a September press release that it aimed to launch a Canadian fiat-backed stablecoin and that it had raised $10 million in investments from Canadian FinTechs and financial service providers.

Those investors include Urbana Corporation, Wealthsimple, Purpose Unlimited, Shakepay, ATB Financial, National Bank and Shopify.

Wealthsimple Chief Legal Officer Blair Wiley said in the September press release: “This partnership represents a defining moment for Canada’s digital economy. Tetra has sparked nationwide enthusiasm across century-old institutions, tech leaders, traditional financial services and those at the forefront of financial innovation.”

In December, Tetra Digital Group announced in a press release that CAD Digital had successfully conducted a series of test transactions within its testnet environment for CADD and planned to launch the stablecoin in Q1 2026.

The company said that during the tests, Wealthsimple and National Bank transferred CADD to one another to demonstrate the capabilities of digital Canadian dollars.