Bitcoin reached a new all-time high in U.S. dollars this month and the decentralized cryptocurrency continues to hover near its ATH in CAD as well.
Despite the volatile and scam-laden nature of crypto markets, the potential for gains is undeniable—Bitcoin is up over 1,000% in the past five years—and that opportunity has sustained in retail and institutional investors alike a strong appetite for digital assets.
There are an estimated five million crypto holders in Canada and that number grows every day. Coin holders are becoming an important voting bloc.
Crypto’s steady advance into the mainstream also been an opportunity for the many rising fintechs who power much of the processes behind the screens, as confirmed by recent headlines highlighted below.
Zero to (Nearly) 100
When Toronto’s Wealthsimple launched in 2014, Bitcoin was nascent, and the Canadian fintech platform offered nothing to do with the emerging crypto.
Fast forward to 2025, and Wealthsimple has a roster of custodians to help manage its crypto assets across nearly 100 different currencies.
Blair Wiley, Chief Legal Officer at Wealthsimple, says digital assets are growing “into a more established part of the financial system.”
Investing with Purpose
Four years ago, Purpose Investments made history by launching the Purpose Bitcoin ETF, the world’s first Bitcoin ETF backed by physically settled Bitcoin.
Earlier this year, the Toronto-based fintech launched the Purpose Solana ETF, the first world’s first ETF to offer regulated Solana access with native staking yield.
This month, the Canadian firm unveiled two new core funds: Purpose Core Bitcoin ETF and Purpose Core Ether ETF. Now trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange, these new funds are “built for simplicity,” according to Purpose, providing transparent exposure to Bitcoin and Ether “without premium features such as CAD-hedged units, multiple custodians, or listed options.”
Purpose Investments boasts over $24 billion in assets under management, including $4B in digital assets.
Evolving with Bitcoin
Purpose is by no means the only entity innovating the crypto space with investment opportunities.
Evolve Funds Group unveiled this year the Evolve Levered Bitcoin ETF and the Evolve Levered Ether ETF on the Toronto Stock Exchange, which aim to offer investors leveraged exposure to bitcoin and ether.
Founded in late 2017, Toronto’s Evolve counts over $7 billion in assets under management.
BlackRock, Too
BlackRock this year launched the iShares Bitcoin ETF on Cboe Canada under the symbol IBIT.
The iShares Bitcoin ETF aims to mirror the price performance of bitcoin before accounting for fund expenses and liabilities by investing primarily in the U.S.-based iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, which holds long-term positions in bitcoin, thus eliminating the “operational and custody challenges associated with directly holding cryptocurrency.”
Mature and Liquid
Critics of cryptocurrencies liken holding the digital assets as gambling, not investing. Skeptics point to the volatility of Bitcoin and other coins as reasons not to buy in.
But fintech experts such as Shakepay’s Eric Richmond note that Bitcoin has now “reached significant levels of maturity” with the asset’s daily trading volumes suggesting liquidity equivalent to stocks and bonds.
Cryptocurrencies may not be the most predictable investment available, but to be fair, not every company is blue-chip; penny stocks have always been a dice roll, for example. Plus, Bitcoin has rallied from every dip with gusto, which few penny stocks manage to pull off.
Richmond and others anticipate continued adoption of alternative digital assets moving forward.
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