Canada Moves to Ban Crypto Donations in Politics Amid Transparency Concerns
Violators face penalties of up to twice the illegal contribution’s value, with individual fines reaching CA$25,000 and corporate fines up to CA$100,000, plus a 30-day window to return or destroy banned contributions.
The bill revives identical provisions from Bill C-65, which collapsed in January 2025, and follows the United Kingdom’s similar ban on crypto political donations.
Canada’s Liberal government has revived a plan to remove cryptocurrency from federal political fundraising, introducing Bill C-25 on March 26 to ban digital assets, prepaid cards and money orders as political donations.
The proposal would reverse a framework in place since 2019, when Canada began allowing some crypto contributions as non-monetary donations.
That system was already narrow. Only assets on public blockchains were permitted, which meant privacy-focused coins such as Monero and Zcash were excluded from the start.
Donors giving more than CA$200 still had to be identified, yet crypto never became a meaningful funding source in federal politics. No major party publicly reported a single crypto donation during either the 2021 or 2025 election.
The government’s case for a ban rests on traceability and election security rather than evidence of heavy use.
Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault had first argued for tighter controls, but by 2024 shifted to supporting a full prohibition. His position was that cryptocurrency’s pseudo-anonymous design made it too difficult to confirm who was really behind a contribution, leaving a potential opening for foreign interference.
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Scope of the New Restrictions
Registered parties, local riding associations, candidates, leadership contestants, nomination contestants and third parties involved in election advertising would all be barred from accepting cryptocurrency.
If a prohibited contribution is received, the recipient would have 30 days to return it, destroy it, or convert it and send the proceeds to the Receiver General. Penalties are steep: up to twice the value of the illegal donation, with fines reaching CA$25,000 for individuals and CA$100,000 for corporations.
The bill also includes provisions dealing with foreign interference, bribery, AI-generated deepfakes, long-ballot protest tactics and stronger investigative powers for the Commissioner of Canada Elections, including authority that extends across borders.
Parliament had already passed the same crypto-donation ban through Bill C-65, but that legislation died when Parliament was prorogued in January 2025 after Justin Trudeau announced his resignation.
Read more: Mastercard Bets Big on Stablecoins to Bridge Crypto and Traditional Payments
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Filed under: Bitcoin - @ March 30, 2026 6:05 am