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N.America · Established
Canada
Crypto Livability Index 2025·data to 31 Dec 2025
Scoreboard
Five pillars, then the 22 sub-pillars scored 0 to 4. Empty sub-scores are held out of the total, not zeroed.
The number behind the rank
| Raw capability score | 71 / 84 |
| P2P liquidity bonus (tie-breaker) | +1 |
| Inflation 2.8% · unbanked 2% · remittances 0% GDP · capital controls 0 · sanctions 0 | CNI 0.015 |
| Need multiplier | ×0.522 |
| Livability score | 0.441 |
Raw 71/84 = 0.845 capability. Crypto-Necessity Index 0.01, from five components: inflation 2.8% (three-year average 2023 to 2025), unbanked 2% of adults, remittances 0% of GDP, capital-control intensity 0.00 (KAOPEN 2023), sanctions exposure 0. Need multiplier ×0.52. Livability score 0.441, rank #36 of 79.
Three findings
A perfect spending score that almost nobody needs to use
Canada posts 20/20 on spending, one of nine countries to do so, with all five sub-scores at 4. Bylls, the Bull Bitcoin bridge, lists more than 9,000 corporate billers and lets a Bitcoin holder pay any Canadian bank account as a personal payee: rent, utilities, even the tax agency, all six bill categories settling crypto-native. The capability is world-class; the necessity is near-zero.
The country falls 34 places the moment need is priced in
Canada ranks #2 of 79 on raw capability but #36 once the Crypto-Necessity Index (the composite of inflation, unbanked share, remittance dependence, capital controls and sanctions) is applied, the steepest drop anywhere in the index. The cause is the structural absence of pressure: inflation 2.8%, 2% unbanked, inbound remittances 0% of GDP among the lowest measured anywhere, no capital controls. The need multiplier of 0.52 is one of the lowest in the index, and it nearly halves the score.
More restrictive on exchanges than the United States, by design
Binance withdrew in 2024, OKX exited early 2025, and KuCoin is permanently OSC-banned, while the Canadian Securities Administrators cap retail buyers at CA$30,000 a year on any crypto outside Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. Because stablecoin purchases count toward that cap, the limit bites hardest on the spending-oriented user this index tracks.
In one line
"Canada built one of the most complete crypto-spending stacks on earth, then discovered it had almost no reason to spend. A stable currency is the quiet luxury that makes the rails optional."
Watch in 2026
Trajectory 3/4, trending liberalising. The November 2025 federal budget proposed Canada's first national framework for fiat-backed stablecoins, and the draft Stablecoin Act inside the Budget 2025 Implementation Act would require fully backed, bankruptcy-remote reserves held with qualified custodians under Bank of Canada oversight; passage in early 2026 would move the trajectory toward 4. The CSA's NI 81-102 amendments governing public crypto-asset funds took force in July 2025, with the third phase of fund-rule formalisation still pending.