CADD Stablecoin Goes Live on Solana in Canada Push

CADD now runs on Solana alongside its earlier deployments on Ethereum, Base, and Tempo. Tetra pitched the move as a bid for institutional treasury flows, not retail speed.

What the CADD Stablecoin Actually Is

CADD stands for Canadian Digital Dollar, and it holds a one-to-one peg to the Canadian dollar. Tetra Trust Company issues the token, while CAD Digital Inc. acts as its agent.

Tetra Trust is an Alberta-licensed trust corporation. The industry widely knows it as Canada’s first regulated digital-asset custodian, a role it has held since roughly 2021.

The token is not legal tender, and it carries no government backing. According to Tetra’s own terms, it is also not CDIC-insured.

For each token in circulation, the company says it holds C$1.00 in the CADD Reserve Trust. In addition, Baker Tilly provides monthly reserve attestations, and CAD Digital posts daily reserve-ratio reports.

Why Tetra Picked Solana

Lily Hansen-Gillis, product and ecosystem manager for CADD, framed the choice around institutions rather than raw throughput. She made the case in a clip that Solana’s official account shared on September 25.

“We didn’t pick Solana for speed. It’s not just a network for retail. It’s a network we can take to a large institution considering onchain rails for how they manage their finances.”

So the pitch leans on distribution, not hype. Tetra already runs custody for Canadian Solana ETFs, and it works with Fireblocks, Anchorage, and Coinbase.

Solana also holds the deepest stablecoin market outside Ethereum. That market sits near $15 billion, though USDC still controls more than half of it.

The “First Regulated” Claim Draws Pushback

Tetra calls CADD the first Canadian-dollar stablecoin issued by a regulated financial institution. Rivals and reporters dispute that framing.

Stablecorp’s QCAD secured OSC approval before CADD launched, according to Investment Executive. Meanwhile, Loon’s CADC has traded since 2021 and reached Solana in June, roughly three months ahead of CADD.

So the accurate wording sits narrower. CADD appears to be the first CAD stablecoin from a licensed Canadian trust company. It is not the first CAD token overall.

Tetra’s counsel leans on that trust structure. Lori Stein of McCarthy Tétrault told the Globe and Mail that a holder legally owns one Canadian dollar per token.

How CADD Stacks Up Against Rivals and Banks

Canada’s stablecoin race now has three named players. QCAD, CADC, and CADD each answer the same question about a dollar that moves on-chain.

QCAD, from Stablecorp, took the securities route and cleared an OSC review early. CADC, from Loon, has run since 2021 and already settles through Interac partners.

CADD takes a different path. Instead of a securities filing, it relies on a provincial trust structure and an Alberta sign-off. As a result, Tetra argues that each token is a direct liability of a financial institution.

Big banks are circling the same space, too. Canada’s Big Six lenders tested tokenized deposits the same week CADD reached Solana. On September 10, the regulator OSFI said those tokenized deposits stay deposits. So they sit apart from reserve-backed coins like CADD.

Reserves, Redemption, and the Fine Print

Redemption stays permissioned, so only KYC-screened users can cash out. They send tokens to a burn address, then wait for a Canadian-dollar wire.

The fee is the greater of C$50 or 0.25%, plus tax. In turn, CAD Digital targets completion within four business hours.

Reserves may sit only in Canadian liquid assets, per a trust indenture dated March 30. As a result, holders earn none of the trust income.

Baker Tilly signs monthly attestations on those reserves, and it runs an annual audit of the trust. In addition, CAD Digital publishes daily reserve-ratio reports, though those daily numbers stay unaudited.

Still, key details stay private. Tetra has not published the Alberta approval document. It has also not named the single bank that holds the reserve account.

Early On-Chain Activity and a Fake-Token Warning

On-chain data shows the CADD stablecoin off to a small start on Solana. Roughly 79,000 tokens circulated on the network as of September 25.

That figure looks tiny next to Solana’s stablecoin market. Across all chains, CADD’s float sits near 1.2 million tokens, worth under $900,000 on DefiLlama.

Within two hours of the launch, Tetra also warned users about copycat CADD tokens on Solana. The official mint address is Az9eyxEaiZD9AX4j5nP19Cm79eyfNriTuddMSQmLNEBm.

Early trades also ran through decentralized exchange routers. So the first days look crypto-native, rather than the bank settlement that Tetra promotes.

What’s Next for the CADD Stablecoin

Canada’s federal Stablecoin Act took effect in name this year, yet the detailed rules arrive only in 2027. So CADD’s regulatory status could still shift.

For now, the CADD stablecoin remains a small but closely watched test of bank-grade digital dollars in Canada. Its Solana volumes will show whether institutions actually settle in it.

This article is informational and not financial advice. Always research any digital asset and its issuer before you transact.