Share this article
Canadian Bank Launching Fiat-Backed Digital Currency in Claimed World First
The bank says its VCAD stablecoin is the first digital currency issued by and backed by deposits with a North American bank.
Updated May 9, 2023, 3:16 a.m. Published Feb 24, 2021, 2:04 p.m.
Canadian bank VersaBank is to launch a stablecoin called VCAD that it plans for use in commerce.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
- In an announcement Wednesday, the bank claims the Canadian-dollar linked VCAD is the first digital currency issued by and backed by deposits with a North American bank.
- For the launch, VersaBank partnered with Stablecorp, a joint venture between crypto asset manager 3iQ and blockchain development firm Mavennet – both also Canada-based.
- Currently, the digital currency is only being issued by VersaBank to financial intermediary partners in exchange for Canadian dollar deposits.
- The partners will then offer VCAD directly to individuals and businesses for use in commerce. VCAD will be redeemable for Canadian dollars as required after that, the bank said.
- "As North America's first bank-issued ‘stablecoin’ VCAD offers consumers and businesses the ability to adopt and leverage the benefits of digital currency and blockchain-based assets without the volatility of traditional currencies, alongside the security of a value-backed asset that the cryptocurrency world has long demanded," said David Taylor, president of VersaBank and its cybersecurity subsidiary, DRT Cyber.
- The bank said it expects VCAD to be available to the general public in coming months.
Read more: Canada’s First Bitcoin ETF Hits $421.8M AUM in Two Days
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
From Wall Street to the World Cup: How Football Became Crypto’s Biggest Gateway Drug
As institutions are laying the groundwork for wider crypto adoption from the top down, it’s being met by rising interest from football fans from the ground up.
Top Stories
