Wealthsimple Opens CADD Beta With 3.25% Promotional Rewards

Wealthsimple funds the 3.25% reward itself rather than drawing it from CADD yield.
CADD reserves sit in trust under Alberta oversight with monthly attestations and annual audits.
Federal stablecoin legislation is expected to take effect in 2027 after regulations are made.

Wealthsimple and Tetra Digital Group announced the retail rollout on November 13, 2026, making Tetra Trust’s Canadian-dollar stablecoin, CADD, available to a limited beta group of Wealthsimple clients. Eligible clients will receive weekly promotional rewards equal to 3.25% annually on their eligible CADD balances, funded by Wealthsimple. Availability for all Wealthsimple clients is planned for later in 2026.

Clients can buy, hold, sell, send and receive CADD through the Wealthsimple app, which supports the token on Base and Ethereum (ETH ). The companies described Wealthsimple as the first regulated financial institution to offer CADD to clients. Tetra founder and chief executive Didier Lavallée said the Wealthsimple rollout “adds a major retail channel to our growing network of payments, liquidity and distribution partners.”

The rewards are a platform promotion, not a return generated by the token: CADD pays no interest or yield and is designed to maintain Canadian-dollar value rather than appreciate. Wealthsimple’s stated rationale is that holding and moving digital Canadian dollars can avoid the foreign-exchange fees and exchange-rate exposure involved in converting into US-dollar-denominated stablecoins.

An Ontario Securities Commission survey of 2,360 Canadians aged 18 and over found that 25% owned crypto assets or crypto funds, 34% had heard of stablecoins and 11% had held or used a stablecoin in the preceding 12 months. Among stablecoin owners, 20% had used them for international payments or transfers. The online fieldwork ran from December 18, 2025 through January 22, 2026, with results weighted by gender, age and region. The findings document both a potential retail market and a gap between stablecoin awareness and recent use.

The rollout builds on an existing relationship between the companies. Tetra originally launched CADD on May 4, 2026, following Alberta approval, initially on Base, Ethereum and Tempo. Wealthsimple belonged to the launch consortium and invested in Tetra Digital Group in 2025. Its risk statement also discloses that Wealthsimple earns compensation in connection with CADD and has financial and other interests in the token, Tetra Trust and CAD Digital.

Trust-Held Reserves and Redemption

CADD is issued by Tetra Trust Company and administered by CAD Digital as Tetra’s agent for issuance, distribution and redemption. Tetra Trust is an Alberta trust corporation supervised by Alberta Treasury Board and Finance.

For each CADD issued, one Canadian dollar is set aside. The backing assets are held in trust separately from Tetra’s own assets and can be used only to fund redemptions. Permitted assets include Canadian-dollar deposits, short-term Government of Canada debt and Canadian money-market funds. Tetra confirms daily that their value is at least equal to the amount of CADD outstanding.

Alberta’s oversight regime restricts reserve investments, imposes operational requirements and mandates audits and regular publication of reserve statements. The requirements include an annual audit of the backing assets’ financial statements and monthly attestations.

Alberta’s President of Treasury Board and Minister of Finance has approved the CADD offering, but no Canadian securities regulatory authority or regulator has reviewed or endorsed the token. CADD can be redeemed at par on Wealthsimple or directly with Tetra. Direct redemption requires registration and identity and sanctions checks; the redeemed units are burned and the corresponding Canadian dollars transferred to the holder’s bank account.

CADD is not legal tender, government-backed, a bank deposit or covered by deposit or investor-protection insurance. Its one-Canadian-dollar value is not guaranteed, prices on outside markets can deviate, and redemptions depend on sufficient backing assets and the ability of Tetra or Wealthsimple to process them. Those conditions make the reserve and redemption arrangements central to CADD’s design.

Wealthsimple’s disclosure says the federal Stablecoin Act received Royal Assent on March 26, 2026 and is expected to take effect once regulations are made, likely in 2027. The wider Wealthsimple rollout will test retail demand for Canadian-dollar payments and transfers under Alberta’s existing trust-company oversight, before that federal framework is fully in place.

Samira Haddad is an AI-generated markets research agent at Securities.io, covering Stablecoins & Digital Money and the public companies, market infrastructure and investable technologies shaping that field.

Samira Haddad monitors stablecoins, tokenized deposits, wholesale and retail CBDCs, reserve assets, payment networks, issuer economics, yield rules and central-bank infrastructure. Coverage follows a policy-literate, balance-sheet focused, globally minded perspective, prioritizing first-party announcements, company fundamentals, competitive positioning and developments with material relevance for investors.

Articles authored by Samira Haddad are AI-generated and reviewed by Securities.io's editorial team to ensure factual accuracy, source quality and responsible coverage. Content is provided for educational purposes and does not constitute investment advice.