CADD Stablecoin - Information and Risk Statement
Important information about CADD
We may make available on our platform CADD, a prudentially-regulated and fully backed Canadian dollar-denominated stablecoin issued by Tetra Trust Company (“Tetra”) and administered by CAD Digital Inc. (“CAD Digital”). This document explains what CADD is, how it works, the main things to understand before you use it, and the commercial arrangements and interests we have that relate to CADD. It is not advice or a recommendation, and it does not describe every risk. The decision to use CADD is yours.
What is CADD
CADD is intended to be used as a payment instrument and to hold a stable value of one Canadian dollar per unit of CADD. You can use it to send, receive, hold and transact in Canadian dollars on supported public blockchains. CADD is redeemable at par, meaning one unit of CADD for one Canadian dollar, on our platform, and it can also be redeemed at par directly with Tetra.
CADD is not offered as, and is not intended to be, an investment. You are not expected to earn a return by holding it, and its value is not intended to rise. CADD does not represent a share, equity interest or other interest in Wealthsimple, Tetra or CAD Digital, and it does not give you any ownership, voting, profit-sharing or similar rights in any of them.
Tetra is an Alberta trust corporation. It is authorized to operate as a trust company under Alberta law and is supervised by the Alberta Treasury Board and Finance (“ATBF”). As a prudentially regulated trust corporation, Tetra is a fiduciary and is obligated to act in the best interests of its clients. CAD Digital is a subsidiary of Tetra and administers CADD as Tetra's agent, including arranging for CADD to be issued, distributed and redeemed. Wealthsimple currently supports CADD on the following blockchain(s): Base and Ethereum.
CAD Digital has made available on its website the CADD Product Information Statement, which provides information regarding CADD, as required by ATBF.
How is CADD backed
For each unit of CADD issued, one Canadian dollar is set aside to back it. Those backing assets are held in trust by Tetra, are kept separate from Tetra's own assets, and can be used only to fund redemptions of CADD. They are held in cash and other high-quality, liquid Canadian-dollar assets, such as Canadian dollars held in deposit accounts, short-term Government of Canada debt and units of Canadian money market funds. Tetra confirms each day that the value of the backing assets is at least equal to the total amount of CADD outstanding.
Although CADD is designed to stay at one Canadian dollar, this is not guaranteed. There is no guarantee that CADD will trade at one Canadian dollar on markets outside our platform, or that the backing assets will always be sufficient to meet every redemption.
Oversight
Tetra is a Canadian financial institution that carries on business as a trust corporation under Alberta's trust company legislation and is prudentially regulated by ATBF. This means Tetra is subject to strict regulatory oversight, and that oversight extends to how Tetra issues and runs CADD. Tetra and CAD Digital have given undertakings to ATBF about the CADD program, and Alberta's President of Treasury Board and Minister of Finance has approved their offering of CADD.
ATBF has made CADD subject to a risk-based and disclosure-based regime, which includes restrictions on the assets in which Tetra may invest the reserve backing CADD, other operational requirements relating to CADD, mandatory audits, and the regular publication of statements about the assets backing CADD. To meet these requirements, Tetra has engaged an independent audit firm, BT WM LLP, to conduct an annual audit of the financial statements of the assets backing CADD and to prepare monthly attestations about those assets. Both the annual audit and the monthly attestations are posted on the CADD website at tetradg.com/cadd-stablecoin.
Each unit of CADD is recorded as a liability of Tetra, and the one Canadian dollar collected for each unit is contributed to a trust. Tetra acts as trustee of that trust in accordance with the same trust company legislation, and the trust document requires that the assets be used only to fund redemptions of CADD and that Tetra act in good faith and with the care, diligence and skill that a trustee would apply to trust property of a similar kind.
CADD is not an investment
As noted above, CADD is not an investment. CADD is issued directly by a regulated financial institution as that institution's own obligation and does not entitle holders to interest, dividends, yield or any other form of return.
Tetra takes the position that it has a strong legal basis for treating CADD as outside the definition of a security under Canadian securities laws, including the “instrument evidencing indebtedness” and “investment contract” elements of that definition, and outside the frameworks for derivatives.
Even if CADD were treated as a security, it has been designed to satisfy the conditions of the "specified debt" exemptions from the prospectus requirement in section 2.34(2)(d) or (d.1) of National Instrument 45-106 - Prospectus Exemptions and from the dealer registration requirement in section 8.21(2)(e) of National Instrument 31-103 Registration Requirements, Exemptions and Ongoing Registrant Obligations. These exemptions are available in every province and territory of Canada. Because CADD is offered on the basis that it is not a security, no prospectus has been filed for it, and the statutory rights of action for damages or rescission that can attach to prospectus disclosure, including under section 130.1 of the Securities Act (Ontario), and similar statutory rights in other provinces, do not apply to this document.
We have assessed CADD and have determined that the exemptions available for CADD, together with our own registrations and exemptive relief under Canadian securities laws, permit us to make it available to clients on our platform.
No securities regulatory authority or regulator in Canada has reviewed or endorsed CADD.
How we assessed CADD
Before making CADD available, we reviewed it against industry standard operational and legal requirements, including whether CADD can be supported by our platform.
We evaluated CADD based on publicly available information, including (but not limited to):
The creation, governance, usage and design of CADD, including the source code, security and roadmap for growth in the developer community and, if applicable, the background of the developer(s) or issuer(s) that first created CADD;
The supply, demand, maturity, utility and liquidity of CADD;
Material technical risks associated with CADD, including any code defects, security breaches and other threats concerning CADD and its supporting blockchain (such as the susceptibility to hacking and impact of forking), or the practices and protocols that apply to them;
Legal and regulatory risks associated with CADD, including any pending, potential, or prior civil, regulatory, criminal, or enforcement action relating to the issuance, distribution, or use of CADD; and
The stability, resilience, and structure of the stablecoin.
We monitor ongoing developments related to the products we make available on our platform for significant changes that may affect our original assessment of those products, including our assessment of the application of securities and derivatives laws. Any significant changes relating to CADD may result in changes to this document and/or our ability to support CADD.
Conflicts of interest
We make CADD available under commercial arrangements with CAD Digital and Tetra, and we have financial and other interests in CADD and in those companies. Because we earn compensation in connection with CADD and stand to benefit from its success in ways we would not if you held cash or a different product, we may be perceived to have an incentive to make CADD available to you, to favour it over other products, or to encourage you to acquire, hold or transact in CADD. Other conflicts may also arise from time to time.
None of these arrangements or interests overrides our obligation to deal with you fairly, honestly and in good faith. We describe these conflicts, and how we address them, in our conflict of interest policy.
Keeping up to date about CADD
Because CADD operates on public blockchains and is backed by a live pool of assets, some of its details change over time, and Tetra keeps the current information on the CADD website at tetradg.com/cadd-stablecoin. There you can find the list of blockchains that CADD is supported on, the monthly reports and annual audit that show the backing assets are sufficient, and the trust indenture, which is the document under which Tetra holds the backing assets in trust and which sets out its duties in doing so. Tetra will use this page to disclose any event that has, or is likely to have, a significant effect on CADD or on the assets backing it.
Your obligations when using CADD
Using CADD carries certain obligations. In addition to our terms of use, account agreements and privacy policies, your use of CADD is governed by a set of CADD Terms and Conditions, and your personal information is handled in accordance with the CADD Privacy Policy, each published on the CADD website. Among other things, those terms set out how you may and may not use CADD, when your use of it may be suspended or restricted, and the rules for redeeming it from Tetra. You should read the CADD Terms and Conditions and the CADD Privacy Policy before you acquire, hold or transact in CADD, and by using CADD you agree to those terms.
Complaints about CADD
Tetra and CAD Digital operate their own complaints handling process for CADD, which is available here. If your concern is about CADD itself, for example its issuance, its backing assets, or a redemption made directly with Tetra, you can raise it through the complaints process described on the CADD website. This is in addition to, and separate from, the complaints processes and procedures available to you through Wealthsimple in connection with your use of our platform. If your concern is about your Wealthsimple account or how you bought, sold or held CADD on our platform, you can use Wealthsimple's own complaints process in the usual way. You may use whichever process fits your concern, and using one does not prevent you from using the other.
Other things to know about CADD
Not a bank deposit and not insured. CADD is not legal tender and is not backed by the government. It is not a bank deposit and does not represent money held in an account in your name at a bank or other deposit-taking institution. It is not covered by deposit insurance, such as coverage under the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation Act, or by investor protection funds, such as the Canadian Investor Protection Fund. CADD is not the same as, and is riskier than, a bank deposit or holding cash in your Wealthsimple account. Whether you can redeem depends on the backing assets being sufficient and on Tetra or Wealthsimple being able to process redemptions.
Stablecoin terminology. Although the term "stablecoin" is used herein, there is no guarantee that CADD will maintain a stable value in relation to the value of the reference asset when traded on secondary markets or that the reserve of assets, if there is one, will be adequate to satisfy all redemptions.
Value on other markets. CADD is designed to have a value of one Canadian dollar per unit, but its price on markets outside our platform can move away from that, for example if redemptions are paused or delayed, if trading is volatile or illiquid, or if a market maker will not buy or sell it. CADD is newly available and does not yet have a long trading history. Since CADD became available on our platform, its trading price has not materially deviated from one Canadian dollar.
Redeeming CADD. You can sell or redeem CADD at par on our platform. You can also redeem directly with Tetra. To do so, you must complete Tetra's registration and its identity and sanctions checks, and you must send your CADD to an address Tetra provides so that it can be permanently removed from circulation. Tetra may, from time to time, charge an administrative fee for direct redemptions, plus applicable taxes. These fees are only applicable if you redeem CADD directly through Tetra and are publicly disclosed on the CADD website. We do not guarantee that we will support CADD on our platform at all times.
Bankruptcy or insolvency. The backing assets are held in a separate trust that can be used only to fund redemptions, which is designed to protect them if Tetra fails. Even so, because the application of bankruptcy and insolvency law can be uncertain, it is possible that on an insolvency of Tetra its creditors could assert rights to the backing assets that outrank yours, or that otherwise reduce or delay your ability to access them. This risk cannot be removed entirely.
Reliance on CAD Digital. Holders depend on CAD Digital to run the day-to-day operation of CADD as Tetra's agent. If CAD Digital stops doing so, there is no guarantee that the handover to Tetra or to another administrator would be smooth or uninterrupted.
If CADD is wound down. Tetra may wind CADD down. It has committed to give at least 180 days' notice, which may be extended by two further 90-day periods. During that time you can sell or redeem your CADD. After it ends, redemption rights stop and any CADD that remains outstanding will no longer have value against the backing assets.
Freezes, seizures and restrictions. Tetra monitors activity and may suspend, restrict, freeze, seize or permanently remove CADD in connection with prohibited or unlawful use, sanctions, court orders or other legal requirements. CADD that is frozen or seized may become permanently inaccessible and unusable. Depending on where you are, you may be restricted from using CADD, and it is your responsibility to use it lawfully.
Technology risks. Blockchain transactions are generally final. If you send CADD to the wrong address, in the wrong amount, or to a wallet that does not support it, it may not be recoverable. CADD also carries the general technology risks of blockchains and the internet, including network outages, forks, cyberattacks, and the possibility that third parties create copycat or wrapped versions of CADD that are outside Tetra's control.
Regulatory change. Canada's rules for stablecoins are still developing. The federal Stablecoin Act received Royal Assent on March 26, 2026 and is expected to take effect once regulations are made, likely in 2027. Changes in the law, or in regulators' views, could affect CADD, how it is treated, or whether we can continue to offer it.
This list is not exhaustive. Other risks and information apply to CADD, and you should consider those set out on the CADD website and in the CADD Product Information Statement before you acquire, hold or transact in CADD.
More information
This document is a summary to help you decide whether to use CADD. It does not describe every risk or term, and it does not change the terms and conditions that govern CADD, which apply in full. For the complete picture, including the documents described above, see the CADD website at tetradg.com/cadd-stablecoin.
This document is not tax, legal or investment advice, and you should consider your own circumstances and seek professional advice if you need it.
Last updated: October 21, 2026.