As 2025 comes to a close, it's worth reflecting not just on this year, but the last decade of Canadian crypto. What's gone well? What hasn't? What does the last decade tell us about what's to come?

Amazing: Founding Of Crypto's Main Chain

Ethereum has been the second most valuable cryptocurrency (next to Bitcoin) for the last decade. By dollars, it's second place. But by impact and influence, it's certainly number one. Bitcoin may be the household name but Ethereum has more transactions, more applications, and more influence. Ethereum is the model for most blockchains that came after, and many have been launched that are directly compatible (e.g. Polygon, Coinbase's Base network, and the lesser known L2s like Fuel Network, etc.).

Cryptocurrency is not a Canadian phenomenon, it's global in scope, developer community and use. But Canadians have played an outsized role in its creation, development, and success. Ethereum is the most famous Canadian creation because it significantly started in Toronto, and several key people were Canadian.

Less Amazing: Ethereum Globalized

Alas, Ethereum largely decamped ten years ago, not long after inception. And it didn't come back. There's many Ethereum developers in Canada, and some of the key people still live here, but no one today would describe Ethereum as Canadian. In a slightly different world it could have been, but Canada was not seen as the best home for Ethereum at the time, and things hvaen't gotten better in that regard.

Great: Technologists Won

At the time I viewed it as a shame that the Ethereum project left Toronto but probably that was an inevitable thing given the speeches being made by politicians and regulators, none of whom took any action against Ethereum. Or the many imitators that followed. And in that we see one of the most interesting dynamics of the last decade: many speeches by government but not a lot of action, because it turns out the innovators were right, and cryptocurrency is legal to design, make, and use. Technologists won.

Not Good: Foreign Incorporations For Canadian Token-Based Projects

Many Canadian projects are based in the Cayman Islands and other foreign jurisdictions because Canada has not been seen as being friendly for crypto both politically, regulatorily (i.e. securities law), or economically (i.e. tax). The standard move over the last decade for Canadian founders that want to make a token-based project is to set their operations up elsewhere. Lawyers have always advised people that being based offshore isn't a solution to local law, but in many ways that isn't true, and regulators have often treated foreign-incorporated projects as being beyond their domain of responsibility. This has been a key factor in allowing crypto to grow.

Surprisingly Good: Restricted Dealer System

Canada's provinces created a new system for regulating cryptocurrency dealers that offer account-based trading after the collapse of a fraudulent exchange, QuadrigaCX. The name of the exchange is well-known to people who've been involved in crypto for the last decade, but that bankruptcy is now many years in the rear view mirror. What emerged was the Restricted Dealer system of provincial regulation with passporting across Canada. This system is a mirror of securities dealer regulation, applied on a more limited basis. And it's been a surprising success. Now, maybe it hasn't been a success and just the industry has matured so frauds are less prevalent. But I think it can be judged a success. Canadians now have much safer venues to trade, and there hasn't been a failure of any of the Restricted Dealers.

I receive a steady stream of desperate emails from people who've been scammed by foreign fraudulent exchanges/dealers. There's an easy answer for these people going forward: just deal with the regulated Canadian dealers (like my former client, Shakepay, and a current one: Cybrid).

Very Bad: Foreign Frauds, Ponzis, and Scams

The rise of cryptocurrency has made fortunes for many people, and caused many others to want to repeat that lucky success. Unfortunately this has made people easy targets for offshore criminals, who have industrialized fraud through various scams. Pig butchering is one of the most emotionally brutal ones, since it usually involves people thinking they've made a friend or lover who turns out to be a scammer in an oppressive call centre in Southeast Asia. Pig butchering and similar scams have cost Canadians billions (but no one knows the real number). They take advantage of people's knowledge of scams by suggesting the person is only putting in a bit of money to try it out, and then they escalate from there, showing fake winnings along the way. Cryptocurrency's borderless nature, and the weak ability of Canadian police to act against complex scams (particularly overseas) has cost people huge amounts of money. This is one of the darkest corners of crypto, although the existence of criminals isn't a reflection on the law-abiding and good people who have built crypto.

Bad: Political Conflict

Bitcoin featured in Canadian Parliament as a way of scoring points over the last few years. And then when protesters descended on Ottawa, demanding an end to oppression, they were met with a huge police response, lawsuits, and ultimately new regulations to try to stop people from being able to crowdfund using cryptocurrency. Since the government can't actually ban people from protesting, they did the next best thing: they went after their money. Cryptocurrency exchanges and dealers received notice that they had to turn over all the money and account information of people accused, without evidence, of protesting against the government in Ottawa. This then led to the RPAA law to crackdown on crowdfunding platforms.

In one way, this story is really about centralization. Cryptocurrency promised decentralization, and it delivered it, but people demanded centralization. Because technology is hard, and consumer-friendly businesses offer an easy way forward. So the easy has significantly won out over the hard, and as a result people are channeled into centralized platforms that create convenient targets for regulation. Cryptocurrency itself is essentially beyond regulation, but the companies that operate in Canada and serve people are easy targets. And where there's an easy target, there will eventually be government action. The result is a confusing hybrid of decentralization and centralization, with accompanying confusion by the public about whether crypto really works the way they think.

Very Great: Mainstream Use By Banks And Other Large Corporations

JPM is one of the world's largest banks, and they were early to the crypto game by creating their own blockchain-based token system for moving money. Crypto has gone well beyond its origins as an anti-bank money to become something that banks find useful and embrace. The reality is that we live in a time that's dominated by very large corporations. The use by these large corporations of crypto is something to be celebrating, not lamented, because the widespread adoption of good technology is what makes Canadians (and everyone else) richer. Some purists don't like this, but they're failing to see the big picture of the diffusion of technology into new sectors. When big banks embrace crypto, everyone wins.

The reality of implementing crypto in large enterprises (in whatever form) is that it's very difficult, and this is a long-term technological development process. People expected big bang action many years ago, but that's not how large enterprise works. Things take time, and that's ok. There have been many pilot projects that haven't panned out, but there's success amidst the failure, and Canada's banks are now seizing these opportunities.

Amazing: Creation Of Stablecoins (& QCAD!)

Canadians can now easily receive money from abroad using stablecoins. There's finally a type of crypto that is dollar-linked, and thus suitable for use by many kinds of businesses. Bitcoin was being used for payments a decade ago, but it was volatile, so it wasn't a good fit for people trying to settle bills for exact amounts of Canadian Dollars. This is now a solve problem. Stablecoins weren't invented by Canadians, but they are widely used now, and growing. There's even a regulated Canadian stablecoin: QCAD. QCAD is an all-Canadian development that pioneered a new form of the Canadian Dollar. That's an accomplishment worth celebrating, even if it hasn't yet transformed commerce. All technologies start small, and become rapidly big, and I think this is just a matter of time. QCAD's a former client that I'm proud to have helped launch.

Good: Crypto Developer Jobs

There are many crypto developers in Canada. They're not loud people, and they just happily work away for foreign-incorporated businesses or on their own decentralized projects. There's probably several thousand people who make a living doing tech development for crypto in Canada, and that represents easily a billion dollars in income flowing into Canada. This doesn't get much mention in the news because it's not possible to track or count, but it is real, and it's very meaningful for the people who do this work. The reality of Canada is that income comes from many sources, not just the ones that can be easily counted or that are large (e.g. oil & gas). Every bit helps. And crypto has created a large number of well-paying jobs in Canada's urban centres, and in rural regions.

Several Bitcoin Core developers are Canadian. Like many people in tech, they're global now and move around, but they're a contribution from Canada to the world. Canadian crypto is hard to discern from American crypto much of the time, and most people don't know much about this, but I've been in contact with hundreds of Canadian crypto developers over the years. Devs are the foundation of crypto. And then there's many more jobs in the other business and support roles that surround the tech.

Good: Crypto Lending

Credit makes the world go around. Canadian crypto lending pioneers like Ledn and APX have shown that it's possible to build a business based around lending to holders of crypto. These aren't huge businesses, but they have good volume and they provide a valuable service to people. Crypto lending is a business that was a concept a decade ago but not a real business.

Very Great: Rise Of Professional Expertise

When I started in crypto at the start of 2014 (by being hired by Anthony Di Iorio, co-founder of Etheruem), there was hardly anyone in the professional ranks who understood crypto. There was essentially one great lawyer, Stuart Hoegner, a dual-licensed USA/Canada gaming lawyer who became the GC for Bitfinex (the creator of the world's biggest stablecoin, Tether). Today, there are many great professionals found at large and small firms, all of whom have a good understanding of the industry. There's securities lawyers, litigators, anti-fraud lawyers, solicitors, GCs, and then there's the accountants, and other professionals. Today Canada has a great hub of professional expertise in crypto which serves businesses here and abroad. It's heartening to see so many people dive into this space, and help entrepreneurs make new great products in crypto.

I work with lawyers all over the world, at some of the world's largest law firms (and the many national champions in other jurisdictions that don't have a global presence). It's clear that Canadian lawyers are top notch in this field, and capable of giving advice that is at least as good as what people can get elsewhere. In the professional realm, Canada's doing great. That's been a fun thing to watch, even if this isn't such a large field that it makes the news. The reality of crypto is that it's many quiet success stories.

Ten Years

This is year 11 of crypto for me. A lot's changed over this time. Crypto's gone from something no one's heard of, to something they can't avoid hearing about. Yahoo Finance shows the price of several large cryptocurrencies. Financial news networks show the price of bitcoin on TVs in the PATH system downtown in Toronto. Crypto's here, and it's not going away.