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BTC 
ETH Canada's financial regulator confirms that tokenized deposits have the same legal effect as traditional deposits
Canada's federal banking regulator has taken an important step in promoting the mainstreaming of blockchain-based finance. On September 10, the Office of the Regulation of Financial Institutions (OSFI) issued a statement formally clarifying that tokenized and other digitally represented deposits are not legally different from traditional deposits, and stating that it adopts a "technology neutrality" stance towards licensing activities of federally regulated financial institutions.
This clarification means that banks simply digitally represent or record deposits onto the blockchain and will not create a separate legal category. Tokenized deposits are still deposit products provided by financial institutions, and banks still have to be responsible for their underlying obligations. The use of distributed ledger technology has changed the way assets are represented or transferred, but has not changed their legal attributes under the existing framework.
By treating tokenized deposits as functionally equivalent to traditional deposits, OSFI sends a signal to the market that federally regulated financial institutions can advance blockchain-based deposit products without the need for separate legal classifications or customized regulatory regimes. This actually opens the door for major Canadian lenders to use blockchain networks to modernize their clearing and settlement infrastructure.
What this means for Canadian banks and the broader market
This move makes Canada one of the first major jurisdictions to explicitly resolve the legal treatment of tokenized deposits. It should be noted that tokenized deposits are different from stablecoins in that the former represents claims on regulated banks rather than claims on private issuers.
When launching tokenized products, banks must still comply with existing compliance, cybersecurity and third-party guidelines, including OSFI's B-13 and B-10 frameworks. In addition, agencies are expected to consult with their OSFI chief supervisor before launching any new products to the market.
At the international level, fellow countries are moving in a similar direction. In July this year, the Society for Worldwide Banking and Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) launched a blockchain ledger. 17 banks from six continents are preparing to test tokenized deposit payments for round-the-clock cross-border settlement. Participating institutions include HSBC, Citibank, BNP Paribas, UBS, Standard Chartered Bank, ANZ Bank and Singapore's DBS Bank.
It should be noted that OSFI's statement does not establish broader stablecoin rules in Canada. The country is developing a separate framework for fiat backed stablecoins. Canada's 2025 federal budget includes provisions for a new stablecoin system, and it is expected that starting in 2026, the Bank of Canada will receive C$10 million in funding over two years to manage the framework.
