Coinbase's newly appointed Canada CEO, Eric Richmond, says the exchange wants to become an "everything exchange" for Canadian customers — but argues the country's patchwork of temporary regulatory exemptions is holding that ambition back. Richmond previously held executive roles at Shakepay and Coinsquare before joining Coinbase.
"We want to have all your financial services in one place," Richmond said, describing a vision of Coinbase as the platform where users manage everything from trading to lending, "underpinned by this technology, where it's 24/7, seamless, frictionless."
What Coinbase wants to offer
The company is pushing to bring several products already available to its U.S. customers to Canada, including derivatives trading, decentralized finance access, and tokenized assets. Some of that expansion is already partially underway: Coinbase Financial Markets has secured an international exemption allowing certain Canadian customers to access futures products, though broader retail access would require additional regulatory approvals.
The regulatory gap
Canada has moved on some fronts — the country approved spot crypto ETFs early relative to other jurisdictions and passed a Stablecoin Act in 2026. But Richmond argues the broader system still relies primarily on temporary exemptions and company-specific orders rather than comprehensive legislation. "It's not a new bespoke legislative framework," he said. "And that is something I actually think we still need."
A visible product gap
The disparity between markets is already showing up in customer-facing products. Coinbase One subscribers in the U.S. can earn roughly 7% APY on stablecoin holdings, while Canadian users are currently capped at up to 4.5% APY on USDC — a gap Richmond attributes directly to the absence of harmonized rules.
Richmond's proposed fix
Rather than continuing to seek exemptions on a case-by-case basis, Richmond is advocating for a harmonized "national instrument" — a single, consolidated set of securities rules adopted uniformly across Canada's provincial regulators. He argues that would replace the current fragmented, exemption-based approach and give crypto firms the certainty needed to bring their full product suites to Canadian users.
