Finance committee  My very short answer will be that we have a fragmented regulatory system. It's hard for platforms to be competitive with those in other jurisdictions. Canadians want access to all of this really exciting activity and we need to find a way to allow them to use the Canadian platforms as access points in appropriate ways.

Finance committee  This question will be better answered by the other two members in the crypto community, but the risk here is that the community gets further tainted and has a more difficult time getting access to appropriate banking and having audit firms help them come into compliance and oversee their businesses.

Finance committee  I see that this as going to be a 10-plus-trillion dollar industry within the next decade. Stateside, we're seeing national efforts to turn to existing agencies, asking for recommendations on and study of certain areas, whether it's trading platforms, how stable coins are—tokenized versions of a dollar that exist on these blockchains—and what appropriate frameworks are.

Finance committee  I would add—

Finance committee  I was going to add that the centralized platform that the other two individuals operate is able to freeze those activities, whether it's through a direct withdrawal from their platform to an identified address.... It's also possible that an individual can withdraw to a self-hosted wallet that is outside the purview of that specific platform and make a direct donation.

Finance committee  I would say that it covered both pockets. The platforms that are regulated or are becoming regulated in Canada, and that are working with regulators on appropriate frameworks will monitor the activity. If an individual was using a self-hosted wallet and making a donation to an identified address that was not able to be frozen at that time, those platforms now have a red flag up, looking for interaction with those specific assets.

Finance committee  Yes. Any kind of engagement would be great. I think it could allow the industry to go forward in a positive way to get access to proper banking and proper audits. That's something the industry is struggling with, so as we go forward as a country, any engagement to come up with frameworks for the industry to excel would be very much welcomed.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for inviting me here to speak. I am the chief executive officer of Ether Capital, one of the leading public companies in the cryptocurrency sector. We do not face retail directly, meaning crypto assets cannot be purchased through a platform that we hold.