As a newly formed group, the Canadian Web3 Council hopes to advocate for a national strategy for cryptocurrencies and digital assets in Canada.
“It is imperative that Canada and its citizens are well positioned to benefit from this developing asset class,” said the organization. “The Canadian Web3 Council is calling for all levels of governments to establish a coordinated approach to convene industry and experts to build a robust, equitable and sustainable national strategy for cryptocurrency and digital assets.”
The Council’s initial members are: Aquanow, Axiom Zen, Chainsafe Systems, NBA Top Shot maker Dapper Labs, Ether Capital, ETHGlobal, Figment, Cosmos developer Informal Systems, Ledn, Wealthsimple and WonderFi Technologies. Additional members are actively being sought, according to the statement.
“The Canadian crypto ecosystem is poised to flourish and position homegrown Canadian companies as global leaders,” says Brian Mosoff, CEO of Toronto-based Ether Capital. “Industry participants, government and regulators need to work together to create a framework for responsible innovation that sets Canadian businesses and investors up for success.”
The Council notes that Canada’s capital markets in certain cases have given a warmer reception to crypto products than in the U.S.
For instance, spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETF) have been approved and trading in Toronto for some time, while the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission continues to delay approving such an ETF.
Canada’s crypto industry came into notable focus recently after the Ontario Provincial Police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police ordered all regulated financial firms to cease facilitating any transactions from 34 crypto wallets tied to funding that country’s trucker protests.
