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April 13, 2023 - Stablecorp, a digital asset infrastructure company, today announced the "re-launch" of QCAD, its Canadian Dollar denominated stablecoin.
QCAD is issued by Stablecorp Digital Currencies Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Stablecorp dedicated exclusively to operating and managing the reserves of the stablecoin. In order to maintain the one Canadian Dollar value of each QCAD, SDC will maintain reserves of cash and cash equivalents equal to or greater than the amount of QCAD in circulation on public blockchains. Initially, QCAD will be available on the Ethereum, Stellar and Algorand blockchains.
The QCAD reserves will be held with Tetra Trust Company ("Tetra"). Tetra has opened an "In Trust For" account with a Canadian financial institution dedicated strictly to holding reserves of QCAD. To enhance transparency, SDC will be publicly posting monthly attestation reports to validate the volume of reserves as compared to the total circulation of QCAD. These attestations will be performed by Canadian Chartered Professional Accounting Firm Grewal Guyatt LLP. Stablecorp will also be evaluating available open banking technologies to increase attestation frequency.
"We are extremely excited to bring this asset back to the Canadian market at scale. With the stability of the Canadian banking system and foreign exchange rates with the US Dollar at multi-year highs, we've seen demand for QCAD climb and on-chain foreign exchange volumes with USDC rise. Now, with increased regulatory clarity from the Canadian Securities Administrators, the timing is perfect to bring Canadians a transparent, efficient stablecoin," said Stablecorp CEO Alex McDougall.
"We are thrilled to be working with Tetra Trust Company and Grewal Guyatt LLP to deliver this industry-leading structure and are eager to continue to reveal partnership and use-case announcements in the near term."
"Transparency and properly regulated reserve structures are critical parts of the mass adoption and success of stablecoins and the digital asset market. As the only Qualified Custodian for digital assets in Canada, Tetra is excited to play such a critical role in creating an institutional grade stablecoin like QCAD. We're happy to partner with Stablecorp to deliver this valuable solution to Canadians," said Tetra Trust CEO Didier Lavallée.
QCAD is distributed through an Authorized Dealer model whereby wholesale institutional entities will contract directly with SDC for the right to purchase and sell each QCAD at a fixed price of one Canadian Dollar. SDC's ability to fulfil these purchase and sale agreements is evidenced by the disclosure and attestation of the reserves. Notably, QCAD itself does not represent a direct claim on the underlying reserves or against SDC, meaning that QCAD holders who are not Authorized Dealers will not have a direct claim on the underlying reserves or against SDC.
Authorized Dealers will also be able to purchase and sell QCAD for US Dollar fiat or the US Dollar stablecoin USDC. However, all proceeds from sales of QCAD will be converted into Canadian Dollars before being moved into reserves to prevent currency risk in the QCAD reserve structure.
At launch, QCAD will be available on Stablecorp's non-custodial Grapes Finance platform as well as on institutional market making platforms DV Chain and Shift Markets.
