Canadian joint venture has launched a new stablecoin pegged to the Canadian Dollar (CAD). Dubbed QCAD, users can trade it against Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDC, and it’s supported by cryptocurrency custodians Balance and Bitvo.
Announced earlier today, QCAD is built on top of the Ethereum blockchain, and it’s based on the ERC-20 standard. It will be backed by the Canadian Dollar, resembling most stablecoins pegged to a widely used fiat currency.
QCAD is the first product release of Canada Stablecorp Inc. The latter is a joint venture between a popular blockchain development company Mavennet Systems, and 3iQ – a crypto asset manager, which recently received approval from the Ontario Securities Commission to launch a Bitcoin Fund.
According to Canada Stablecorp CEO, Jean Desgagne, the new stablecoin will provide trust and enhance mass adoption:
“We are excited to be creating an important piece of financial market infrastructure in for Canada that will serve the digitization of capital markets and provide a robust payment and settlement solution. QCAD represents a significant opportunity to set a new standard for transparency and auditability in digital currencies and will help drive trust and mass adoption of stablecoins.”
Users can already purchase QCAD directly from DVeX, Newton, Bitvo, Netcoins, and Coinsmart. All of them are Canada-based cryptocurrency exchanges.
QCAD’s launch adds to the rising popularity of cryptocurrencies pegged to traditional assets. They come in handy, especially in times of severe volatility. Traders can use them to exit their positions from other cryptocurrencies and to store the funds in stablecoins.
Not only this but Tether, the issuer of the most popular stablecoin, USDT, issued a coin pegged to gold. Earlier this year, the firm launched a new sort of digital asset pegged to gold. Named XAUt, it represents one troy fine ounce of the precious metal on the London Good Delivery bar.
Interestingly enough, most stablecoins are issued on the Ethereum blockchain, as is the case with QCAD. Ultimately, this high rate of adoption led to a recent “flippening” event. As Cryptopotato reported, stablecoins now have a higher transfer value on the Ethereum network than its native cryptocurrency – Ether.