The bill, which aims to completely ban donations to political parties with cryptocurrencies in Canada, passed the second vote in the Parliament. The bill received widespread support and moved to the committee stage, leaving an important step in the legal process behind.
Scope and purpose of the draft law
The bill under discussion, No. C-25, is known as the “Strong and Free Elections Act”. The bill completely bans not only cryptocurrencies, but also political donations made through difficult-to-trace financial instruments such as wire transfers and prepaid cards. Unauthorized crypto donations will be required to be returned to the sender or transferred to the state treasury by the recipients within 30 days at the latest.
Political donations with cryptocurrencies have been legally possible in Canada since 2019. However, to date, no major federal party has accepted donations this way, and no recorded crypto donations were announced in the last elections.
Committee process and political debates
While the bill was being debated in Parliament, the Liberal Party’s parliamentary secretary for government relations, Kevin Lamoureux, stood out as one of the main advocates. It is stated that Lamoureux highlighted different topics such as fake content originating from artificial intelligence, foreign intervention in elections and administrative sanctions. The crypto ban was not at the center of the discussions.
Conservative MPs raised questions about the new funding rules and how these restrictions would be enforced. The party is known for the crypto-friendly attitude of Pierre Poilievre, who led it in the last election. However, in general, there was no serious controversy over the crypto ban in the debates in the Parliament.
The fact that cryptocurrencies have been almost never used in Canadian politics to date is shown as the main reason for the low resistance to the imposed restrictions.
International developments and background
Similar legal regulations are on the agenda in other countries. The UK banned the use of digital assets as political donations with the law it enacted at the beginning of 2024. The reason given was that these tools could be used to hide the origin of money coming from foreign sources. In the USA, the opposite attitude prevails; The Federal Election Commission has been accepting crypto donations to American election campaigns since 2014.
The Chairman of the Electoral College of Canada suggested that crypto donations be strictly controlled in 2022, and in November 2024, he directly recommended that all crypto donations be banned. The semi-anonymous structure of digital assets and the difficulty of verifying the identities of donors were put forward as reasons.
A similar law targeting crypto donations was brought to the agenda in the previous parliamentary term. This regulation, numbered C-65, could not be finalized in the process, with the Parliament being suspended in January 2025. Now, action has been taken again with the new law.
While the role of digital assets in politics is being discussed more and more frequently at the global level, this new position taken by Canada is considered a remarkable development for the future of the crypto ecosystem in the country.
