Canada Toughens Crypto Regulations with New Legislation

Canada's reputation as a pragmatic jurisdiction for digital asset activity has been replaced by a hardened regulatory posture.

The country approved the world's first Bitcoin ETF in 2021 and registered crypto platforms under a provincial securities framework, but this has changed between 2025 and 2026 with three key pieces of legislation: Bill C-12, which amended Canada's anti-money laundering law; Bill C-15, which created the Stablecoin Act placing fiat-backed stablecoin issuers under Bank of Canada supervision for the first time; and the Crypto Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), which introduces standardized tax reporting obligations aligned with OECD global standards.

The combined effect is that crypto-native businesses in Canada now operate under a compliance burden comparable to that of regulated financial institutions, with platforms facing full CIRO registration and issuers required to maintain high-quality liquid reserves backing all circulating tokens on a 1:1 basis.