Canada’s direction on digital asset innovation remains uncertain.

Opinion by: Jillian Friedman, chief operating officer, Symbiotic

Since the Canadian federal election, there’s been little clarity on where this country is heading with digital asset innovation. Crypto regulation and policy didn’t make it into any of the parties’ campaign platforms. It’s a missed opportunity at a time when Canada ​​needs swift action about whether it wants to be a competitor in this space or simply a bystander.

Early-stage investments are already showing signs of strain.

A recent Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) report shows Canadian seed deals dropped to pandemic-era lows during Q1 2025. Canada risks falling behind by not embracing the tools to unlock global trade and innovation elsewhere without a shift in approach. This stands in stark contrast with American, European and Asian jurisdictions, where regulators are acting decisively to provide regulatory clarity and de-block the industry. 

The recent appointment of Evan Solomon as minister of artificial intelligence and digital innovation, a former news anchor with no obvious connection to the topic, could help accelerate that growth, but only if the Liberals take a broader view that enables businesses building with modernizing technologies like blockchain. The Canadian government should focus on some key priority areas. 

Plug Canada’s brain drain 

Even though Canada has an outsized advantage with top-tier institutions, like the Vector Institute (AI) in Toronto, the Institute for Quantum Computing at Waterloo and MILA (AI), tech businesses are increasingly globally mobile and choose to work from anywhere but Canada. Canada has lots to offer scientific researchers — those looking to commercialize enterprises struggle with a lack of access to capital and onerous tax regimes. Talent migration among STEM graduates is high, with as many as two-thirds of software engineering graduates leaving Canada.

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Canada needs to get creative with a workforce that can work from anywhere. Many tax incentives could help. Portugal offers tax relief to young and foreign professionals in high-value sectors, including technology and engineering. It’s time to explore bold, targeted policies to keep digital talent anchored here. Canada must seek to stop penalizing people who take economic risks and start celebrating entrepreneurs. Canadians need fewer increases in capital gains taxes and more relief like small business sales exemptions and the Canadian Entrepreneurs Incentive. 

Canada and stablecoins 

Stablecoins are one of the most promising tools to emerge from crypto. They make payments as easy as email, financial transactions programmable and provide easier market access to prominent fiat currencies. Stablecoins enable businesses to send global payments instantly at a fraction of the cost of a traditional bank wire.

Yet regulators are against this technology, restricting Canadians’ access to stablecoins. This also results in a missed opportunity to open the Canadian dollar to new global markets with a Canadian dollar-denominated stablecoin. The provincial policies are inconsistent, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) have incorrectly classified stablecoins as securities, and federal leadership is absent. If other jurisdictions have figured out how to regulate these assets without killing them, Canada can, too. Canada has long been a leader in financial services and payments, but restricting this technology is bad for the Canadian dollar and Canadians. 

Banking for crypto businesses 

Canadian businesses doing anything remotely related to crypto, even where Anti-Money Laundering (AML) risk is remote, still struggle to access basic banking like deposit accounts, credit cards and payment services. The financial institutions of other G7 countries, subject to similar AML regulations as Canadian banks, have found ways to de-risk blockchain and crypto businesses. It’s time for the Canadian banks to do the same. 

New financial services in payments, lending and cash flow management are taking off elsewhere, but Canadian regulators’ reticence and lack of political will are holding us back.

The previous Liberal government’s stance toward crypto ranged from disinterest to disdain. Will it be any different now? 

Opinion by: Jillian Friedman, chief operating officer, Symbiotic.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.