• Canada’s Invoice C-25, launched March 26, 2026, bans cryptocurrency as a political donation throughout all registered events, candidates, and third events engaged in election promoting.
  • Violators face penalties of as much as twice the unlawful contribution’s worth, with particular person fines reaching CA$25,000 and company fines as much as CA$100,000, plus a 30-day window to return or destroy banned contributions.
  • The invoice revives an identical provisions from Invoice C-65, which collapsed in January 2025, and follows the UK’s comparable ban on crypto political donations.

Canada’s Liberal authorities has revived a plan to take away cryptocurrency from federal political fundraising, introducing Invoice C-25 on March 26 to ban digital belongings, pay as you go playing cards and cash orders as political donations.

The proposal would reverse a framework in place since 2019, when Canada started permitting some crypto contributions as non-monetary donations. 

That system was already slim. Solely belongings on public blockchains had been permitted, which meant privacy-focused cash similar to Monero and Zcash had been excluded from the beginning. 

Donors giving greater than CA$200 nonetheless needed to be recognized, but crypto by no means grew to become a significant funding supply in federal politics. No main social gathering publicly reported a single crypto donation throughout both the 2021 or 2025 election.

The federal government’s case for a ban rests on traceability and election safety fairly than proof of heavy use. 

Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault had first argued for tighter controls, however by 2024 shifted to supporting a full prohibition. His place was that cryptocurrency’s pseudo-anonymous design made it too troublesome to verify who was actually behind a contribution, leaving a possible opening for international interference.

Associated: Ripple Tests Stablecoin Trade Finance in Monetary Authority of Singapore Sandbox

Scope of the New Restrictions

Registered events, native driving associations, candidates, management contestants, nomination contestants and third events concerned in election promoting would all be barred from accepting cryptocurrency. 

If a prohibited contribution is obtained, the recipient would have 30 days to return it, destroy it, or convert it and ship the proceeds to the Receiver Normal. Penalties are steep: as much as twice the worth of the unlawful donation, with fines reaching CA$25,000 for people and CA$100,000 for companies.

The invoice additionally contains provisions coping with international interference, bribery, AI-generated deepfakes, long-ballot protest techniques and stronger investigative powers for the Commissioner of Canada Elections, together with authority that extends throughout borders.

Parliament had already handed the identical crypto-donation ban by Invoice C-65, however that laws died when Parliament was prorogued in January 2025 after Justin Trudeau introduced his resignation. 

Learn extra: Mastercard Bets Big on Stablecoins to Bridge Crypto and Traditional Payments

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