A New Frontier for Digital Asset Management | The CSE Podcast E9-S5

🎙️ Our latest CSE Podcast episode is live - exploring how institutional infrastructure is shaping the future of digital assets in Canada.

Host Dimitri Giller sits down with Didier Lavallee, CEO of Tetra Digital Group, to discuss how regulated custody, infrastructure, and stablecoins are helping bring digital assets into the mainstream financial system.

💡 Spotlight topic: What infrastructure is required for institutional adoption of digital assets?

Born out of the lessons of the QuadrigaCX collapse, Tetra set out to build a regulated, Canadian-based digital asset custodian. Today, the company operates Tetra Trust, develops institutional infrastructure through its Unity software platform, and is preparing to launch a Canadian dollar stablecoin with partners including Wealthsimple, Purpose, National Bank, and Shopify.

📊 In this episode, we cover:
• Why regulated digital asset custody is critical for institutional adoption
• How the Unity platform helps institutions manage complex crypto infrastructure
• The growing demand from banks and fintechs entering digital assets
• The potential role of a Canadian dollar stablecoin in payments and settlement
• Why regulatory clarity will shape the future of tokenized assets

💬 “In the perfect product, the consumer won’t even know they’re interacting with a tokenized asset - it will simply be faster, cheaper, and more efficient.” - Didier Lavallee, CEO of Tetra Digital Group

As institutional interest in digital assets accelerates, infrastructure providers like Tetra are helping bridge the gap between traditional finance and the emerging blockchain economy.

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#CSEPodcast #DigitalAssets #Crypto #Stablecoins #Tokenization #Blockchain #Fintech #CapitalMarkets #CSE

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Hello and welcome to CSE Podcast. I'm Dimitri Gillard, and joining me today is DDA Lamelle, CEO of Tetra Digital Group. DDA, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. So for listeners that are new to Tetra, can you just give us a high-level overview of what the company does and the services it provides?

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Yeah, of course. So Tetra is essentially an institutional digital asset provider. So we specialize in offering a few services. The DNA of our company is a regulated trust company, Tetra Trusts, and that's their primary business today. We've also launched a suite of software called Unity that really helps institutions get into digital asset and allows for on-chain monitoring and orchestration across various platforms. And as of September of 2025, we also announced our intent to become a Canadian stable point issuer. So we have great partners around the table, including the CSC in this project, as well as Weld Simple Purpose, National Bank, Shopify, and others. And we intend to have that launch in Q1 of 2026. So a lot of exciting things happening.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Awesome. So at a high level, what problem does Tetra solve for its customers?

unknown 1:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

So Tetra came out of a digital asset failure in Canada. So those that have a little bit of history around the ecosystem, there was a company called Quadriga CX in 2018 where the founder left with$200 million plus of crypto. And coming out of that event, there was essentially a group of companies that got together and say Tetra, a company like Tetra would have to be created to essentially safeguard digital assets in Canada. We went looking for a framework and eventually landed on a provincial trust company out of Alberta to provide that service. It's an important service because it fixes the problem of digital asset custody, but also on Canadian soil, which is a, you know, obviously a growing important topic based on current macroeconomic conditions. So we really set out to fix the problem of having digital asset custody done by a regulated party. And then over time we saw other opportunities to launch additional products based on how the ecosystem was evolving and also the institutional appetite that's coming into the space.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

So when you speak with banks and fintechs, what do they struggle with the most? Is it the speed, the integration, the regulation, or the trust component?

SPEAKER_00 2:40

I think it's probably a little bit of all those things. I think from a regulatory perspective, uh outside of a few files, I would say Canada's been pretty transparent in terms of the regulatory regimes that oversee digital assets. Um, but it is a new space. It is a new asset class or technology, depending on how you look at it. So it's certainly a different group of providers, uh, different group of technology integration. Um, and typically a company like Tetra will come and help on all those vectors. So we help with the regulatory understanding, we help with the technology assessment and what would be required. Our expertise also shows up at times through vendor selection and you know, the pieces of partners or the types of technology and providers you need around the table. So we tend to provide uh with all of that. Um, but regulatory clarity to me is kind of the number one driver. And while we have good clarity on some aspects, including crypto trading crypto trading platforms, uh we lack clarity on things like stablecoin as an example.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Okay, so let's dig into the Tetra Unity product. Yeah. When you talk to payments teams and treasury teams, what are the questions that they have?

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Yeah, so the primary use case for Unity is when an organization is managing a complex infrastructure or starting new. So I would say those are the two use cases we tend to see more often. Um, starting new meaning you are not in digital asset today, and you're looking for a tool that's going to help you reconcile your balances and transactions. And that's essentially what uh Unity was designed to do. And the second um, you know, user focus that we see is companies that are operating across multiple custodians or multiple different providers, and then suffer from a reconciliation problem. So they have a hard time or they have operations teams that are reconciling data, transactions, and information manually. And that's where Unity comes in. So we're really seeing two types of use cases show up. Um, but ultimately it's meant to be an aggregation layer, which very strong data comes out of it as well. Um, and we're starting to see a third use case, which is where people are just using the data coming out of Unity for their own products. Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

So when we talk about uh payments, on-chain payments and transactions, one of the main concerns is always around regulations. How does Unity help bridge the gap?

SPEAKER_00 5:11

So I think Unity can do a couple of things. Um, one, it allows you to monitor the transactions. So there's a huge component when you look at digital assets that's monitoring and compliance. So having the tooling kit to be able to essentially monitor the transactions, monitor the wallets, monitor the incoming transactions is a big one. The second piece would be um, you know, tools that we have built like FinTrack reporting. So, you know, you have to monitor your transactions, but you also have to report your transactions. So Unity is able to do that as well. Um, now over time, as we think digital assets will continue to change the payments uh landscape, we believe Unity will be able to extend through, you know, payments, taxes, and other modules, including, you know, more formal AMLKYC modules that will continue to benefit both payments and overall digital asset infrastructure.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Okay, so let's uh switch gears to the trust component. Right? It's one of the most critical areas when you talked about the digital asset stack. What's behind it?

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Yeah, so again, you know, we we created Tetra because we were looking to solve uh a specific use case, right? So we needed digital asset custody in Canada. Um, but also when you think about building infrastructure from the ground up and safekeeping assets, your you know, regulated trust company is always your foundation, right? So um, you know, the the trust business or the regulated trust entity has allowed us to create a really solid backbone for a product offering. Canadians knowing that their assets are properly safeguarded within Canada, I think it's a really important aspect of building out our product and our company. Um, and that's essentially what we've solved with the trust company with key management in Canada under regulatory regime and being able to comply and offer the services, you know, in in the country. So those are the primary reasons why we built the company, but it's also an incredible backbone for other products.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Right. So when you talk about uh storage and comparing just secure storage to a regulated custodian, what are the primary differences there?

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Yeah, so you know, different types of wallet technology exist, right? You have storage that is completely offline, or some people would call that cold storage versus you know, wallet infrastructure that's connected. So that would be you know hot wallet infrastructure, or even applications on your phone that you can download, like MetaMask as an example, or uh or on your machine, right? So ultimately, uh a regulated custodian, the main difference is there's a regulatory wrapper around the entity, right? So Tetra utilizes all spectrums of technology from hot to cold to provide a service to its client. But really, what's to set the service apart is you know that we are a regulated entity. You know, we have specific dedicated governance uh pieces we need to comply with, specific audit requirements, transparency around our proof of reserve. So really it's the management of the infrastructure and knowing that it's properly regulated that makes the big difference.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

So when you talk to clients about risk today, which component of risk do they find the most concerning? Is it the technology, the counterparty, or is it regulatory?

SPEAKER_00 8:35

I would say it depends where the client is located. Um, you know, if you look at South of the Border as an example where there's, you know, pretty good regulatory clarity, some of those risks have gone away versus in Canada, in some situations, they're still present. Um, counterparty risk, I think, exists in all businesses, right? So who are your counterparties? Who do you trust to safeguard your assets? What's their track record? You know, how solid of an entity are they? So those are always conversation. I think misunderstanding of the technology as well. Sometimes, you know, I would say crypto has had a little bit of a bad rap over the last couple of years. There's been some very public events. So, you know, still kind of misviewing the technology and what it can do, I think is another one that we we look at, depending on who you speak with. But um, we've seen a major shift from a risk appetite perspective when it comes to this technology over the last 12 to 18 months. I mean, we've really gone from, you know, um limited engagement, I would say, to, you know, broad spectrum engagement across all levels of institutional uh companies in Canada. So we're very excited.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

Fantastic. Let's move on to the third product, the stable coin. Give us a breakdown of what it is and how it works and what you intend to accomplish.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Yeah, so stable coins are essentially just digital money, right? So it's a it's a fully pegged one-for-one digital dollar who can be which can be transacted for payments uh and essentially across the internet, across various protocols. Um, when we looked at the stablecoin initiative and the opportunity to part to partner with such great brands in terms of launching this initiative, um, we took a view that Canada was slightly broken when it comes to stablecoin regulation and and just generally how the industry was being shaped up. Um the tokens that are currently in circulations are qualified as securities, therefore the usability is not fully there for users, and we decided to attack the problem in a different way. Ultimately, we think this will extend uh in terms of exchange of value across all sorts of uh products, you know, including, you know, digital dollars for settlement, digital dollars for commerce, digital dollars for remittances and cross-border activities. So we see a lot of a lot of use cases.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Uh speaking of the digital um dollar currencies, there's growing interest in tokenized assets from different parts of the uh ecosystem. What's driving the institutional interest primarily in your point of view?

SPEAKER_00 11:13

I think there's certainly a level of interest that comes from the efficiency that the technology can bring. Uh if you look at managing, I'll use real estate as an example today. Uh, you know, commercial real estate, which is which is private, uh, can be relatively uh opaque, hard to manage, lots of paperwork involved, not a lot of liquidity or depth of access for the average retail investor. Um, so tokenized real estate can essentially fix some of these items. They you can bring more transparency to the market. You can bring essentially more potential market participants into uh, you know, the various vehicles. So that would be one managing securities. I mean, I don't have to talk to the CSC about that, but can be somewhat complex at times, right? Uh I'll go back to my old days at uh the World Bank of Canada. I mean, corporate actions are some somewhat of a nightmare sometimes uh to manage. So thinking about how the technology can bring efficiency there, uh, and also efficiency in the um financial stack, right? So um how we have designed our market and whether or not we can deliver efficiency. So um we're starting relatively slow in Canada when it comes to tokenization. Um I would expect to see some you know exciting announcement later this year. Uh and over time, I I would expect that a lot of products will get tokenized in some way, shape, or form.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

So, in your point of view, what are the biggest hurdles keeping tokenized assets from becoming more mainstream?

SPEAKER_00 12:47

I think it it it right now it is really truly regulatory clarity, right? Like the technology is here is available. There's a lot of really strong technology technology providers uh that can help you with the product and launching it. Um, but you need the regulatory clarity to be able to do it. So to me, that's that's certainly one. And then the second one, I think there's there's a component of product market fit or whether or not there'll be, you know, I call it institutional or investor appetite. Um when you look at some of the tokenized money market funds in the US, like uh Biddle out of BlackRock or Benji out of Franklin Templeton, they've done really well on a relative basis, but in the whole scheme of products, they're still relatively small. So um, you know, it would code the regulatory environment and clarity. And two, it's the education and the product market fit.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

So speaking of regulatory clarity, as more jurisdictions provide guidance on the subject, um, do you see the customer expectations changing in the next few years?

SPEAKER_00 13:52

I think it will be a slow change when it comes to tokenized securities, is is my perspective. Um, but yes, I do believe that there's gonna be some change coming from the consumer. I expect consumers are gonna start interacting with this. And the perfect product, the consumer is not really gonna know that they're interacting with a tokenized security, right? I think what can make crypto and digital assets you know very successful is when the consumer experience doesn't really make it crypto, if I can use that framing, but essentially makes it like an everyday product that's just more efficient, cheaper, faster, right? Uh and you're seeing some of these companies starting to pop up where they've obfuscated the crypto component of it and just offer you know a traditional product to clients, for example, on the foreign exchange side of things or in the money transfer side of things. And then the user adoption is very high because you don't have to deal with some of the complexity of crypto. And I think the same would be true for tokenization.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

So for companies just starting in the crypto space, getting into the crypto space, what mind shift do they need to make to be successful?

SPEAKER_00 15:01

I think the the last decade or so companies have been able to navigate in the space without necessarily always thinking about regulatory compliance. Um, I think that's certainly uh those days have passed and that certainly has changed, right? Pretty much, you know, whether you operate in Canada and the US or anywhere in the world now, you do have some kind of regulatory framing when it comes to digital assets. Um, therefore, knowing how and where you can operate uh within the proper regulatory guidelines and compliance guidelines is certainly uh one of experience. The other piece that I would say, and this is very much how we build Tetra, is you know, make sure that you have fungibility of infrastructure. Um, because as companies continue to mature and grow, uh having that flexibility to be able to keep up with how the technology is advancing and that you're not locked in from a technology perspective, is important.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Fantastic. Okay, one final question. When you look ahead, um, how does success for Tetra look like in the next few years? Not in terms of technology, but in terms of use cases, how will the broader financial industry start using these products?

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Yeah, I think you know we'd we'll all be very happy if Tetra is, you know, a leading digital asset infrastructure company in in the next few years. I think for us, you know, that would mean digital asset being more mainstream, so more Canadians owning them, more of their digital assets being custodied in Canada. I'd also say, you know, uh the use of stable coin in the various use cases, right? Whether it be on a B2B side or on the on a B2C side. So seeing wide adoption of a Canadian dollar stablecoin, um, I certainly think that would uh you know represent success. I think as Canadian, we would want a Canadian dollar that's competitive from a stablecoin infrastructure perspective globally. Um, and whether it's Tetra or you know another token out there, um, having something that's robust and transacting globally would be important.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

Fantastic. DDA, thank you so much for your time for coming down here and joining us today.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

Thanks for having me.