Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Fintech International
AI Usage Data Shows Early Labour Market Strain
Mar 5, 2026 | NCFA Market Insight | AI And The Future Of Work
Image: Labour market impacts of AI: New measure, early evidence (Anthropic Mar 2026)
Early Signs Of AI Changing Knowledge Work Hiring
On March 5 2026, new Anthropic artificial intelligence labour market impact research | download 17 page PDF offers a more grounded way to think about AI and jobs. Most AI labour studies ask what large language models could do in theory. This one asks what workers actually do with AI now. That sounds like a small change, but it matters. Financial institutions, fintechs, and policymakers need to know where real workflow change starts, not just where capability headlines point.
The paper introduces a new measure called observed exposure. It combines occupational task data, Claude usage data, and earlier research on which tasks language models can theoretically handle. The approach tries to separate technical possibility from real use. That makes this study potentially more useful than other broad forecasts about AI replacing jobs. To be clear, at this point the research doesn't claim mass displacement has arrived. It looks instead for early pressure points that may show up before unemployment spikes.
Why This Research Matters
This report matters because it focuses on real work patterns. The authors use the US O*NET task database, Anthropic Economic Index usage data, and earlier task level exposure estimates to build their measure. They also give more weight to automated and work related uses than to lighter forms of assistance. That helps the study track where AI starts to move from drafting help into actual production work.
See: Why AI Investment Is Missing What Workers Actually Want
That said, the research has real limits, and those limits matter. The usage data comes from Claude, not from the full AI economy. A bank using Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, or internal tools may show a different pattern. The measure also tracks task exposure, not direct job loss. And the authors make clear that adoption still lags capability because of legal controls, software requirements, human review, and workflow friction. That caution strengthens the paper rather than weakening it. It keeps the analysis honest.
AI Can Do More Than Workers Use Today
The most striking findings is the size of the gap between capability and real usage. In STEM (ie. computer and math) occupations, earlier work suggests language models could theoretically touch 94% of tasks. Anthropic’s observed measure puts current Claude coverage in that category at just 33%. In other words, the technology frontier sits much further ahead than the adoption frontier.
That gap matters for fintech and finance because it points to where the real bottleneck sits. The next productivity jump might not come from a bigger, better, faster or smarter model alone. It might come from firms that redesign workflows, tighten controls, connect tools to internal systems, and build trust in output quality. Which operators can close the adoption gap faster than peers.
Programming At The Front Of The Curve
The report finds that computer programmers rank as the most exposed occupation, with 74.5% coverage. Customer service representatives follow at 70.1%, and data entry keyers come next at 67.1%. Digital, repeatable, text heavy work moves first.
See: Fintech Fridays EP55: Global Hiring Trends: How Gen Z Talent Thrives
What stands out for NCFA readers is that this isn't just software engineers. Financial analysts are also among the most exposed occupations in the paper’s wider discussion. That should get the attention of banks, insurers, wealth platforms, lenders, and compliance teams. A lot of value in finance comes from summarizing information, checking documents, explaining options, processing forms, and moving data from one system to another. Those are exactly the kinds of tasks that AI enters early.
Higher Paid Knowledge Work Feels The Pressure First
Workers in the most exposed occupations earn 47% more on average than workers in the unexposed group. People with graduate degrees make up 17.4% of the most exposed group, compared with 4.5% of the unexposed group.
Early pressure is showing up in better paid, more educated, office based roles. In practice, that means AI may alter the work of analysts, developers, researchers, service teams, and operations professionals before it touches many frontline physical jobs. For financial institutions, this points to a management challenge as much as a technology one. Firms need to rethink role design, supervision, training, and quality control inside knowledge work functions.
Younger Workers Show The Earliest Cracks
The research does not find a growing rise in unemployment for workers in the most exposed occupations since late 2022. That is an important result because it pushes back on louder claims that AI already causes wide labour market damage.
But the report does find an early warning sign. For workers aged 22 to 25, job finding rates into highly exposed occupations fall by about 14% compared with 2022 levels. The authors stress that this result is only barely statistically significant and open to other interpretations. So something to watch and track.
This is how labour market change often starts. Not with mass layoffs. Not with an obvious cliff. It starts when firms stop hiring as many junior people because AI now handles part of the routine work those hires once learned on. That's important for banking, fintech, consulting, and other white collar sectors that depend on apprenticeship style career ladders. If entry points narrow, firms may save money in the short run while weakening their future talent pipeline.
What Fintech And Financial Institutions Should Watch
Firms should watch three things closely to better anticipate where the real gap may open between leaders and laggards:
- Where routine document and analysis work starts to compress
- Whether junior hiring weakens in functions that already rely on digital knowledge work
- Which institutions move beyond pilots and actually rebuild operating processes around AI
See: Why Fintechs Are Rebuilding How They Measure Work
For fintech builders, the market needs tools that help institutions safely plug AI into live work. Audit trails, review controls, workflow routing, structured data extraction, policy checking, and role based permissions. Companies that solve those problems help close the distance between AI capability and actual business use and adoption.
In Conclusion
Anthropic’s research is quite useful because it shows where real adoption starts, where the biggest gaps remain, and where the cracks may start to appear and proliferate.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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US Crypto Rules To Clarify Onshore Market Structure
Mar 5, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Insight | Digital Assets And Policy And Regulation
Tokenized Collateral Perpetuals And Event Contracts Get Rules
On January 29 2026, at the joint SEC CFTC event in Washington titled CFTC SEC Harmonization U.S. Financial Leadership in the Crypto Era.
CFTC Chair Michael S. Selig’s remarks laid out a detailed US policy direction for crypto market structure. The speech goes past broad support for innovation and points to specific rule work on tokenized collateral, perpetual derivatives, software safe harbours, retail leveraged crypto trading, and event contracts.
SEC Chair Paul S. Atkins’ remarks support the same direction from the SEC side, which is part Project Crypto.
“Fragmented regulation in an integrated market is not a safeguard for investors so much as a source of confusion among them.”
That line from Atkins defines the problem. Unclear boundaries change how firms structure products, where they launch, and how much they spend on compliance before they can scale.
“Project Crypto recognizes that crypto markets span across our agencies’ respective regulatory boundaries.”
Selig starts from the point that crypto products don't fit neatly into older lines between agencies. Clearer lines are needed to cut the cost of operating in uncertainty.
1. Tokenized Collateral And Perpetuals Move Into The Rulebook
“I have directed CFTC staff to develop rules to enable the responsible deployment of additional forms of eligible tokenized collateral.”
Eligible collateral is what a trading venue accepts to back positions. It decides how much margin traders need, how fast funds move, and how safely trades settle. If the CFTC allows more tokenized assets to count as eligible collateral, more crypto trading can happen inside regulated U.S. markets, but custody and collateral movement will need tighter controls and clearer proof that assets are protected and available when they are needed.
“The CFTC will use the tools at its disposal to onshore perpetual and other novel derivative products so that they can flourish across both centralized and decentralized markets, subject to appropriate safeguards.”
Perpetuals are a popular kind of crypto futures that many platforms offer outside the U.S. If U.S. rules start allowing them in a regulated way, more trading, market making, and new product builds can move onshore. That would also make it harder for offshore exchanges to keep growing just because the U.S. has no clear legal path today.
2. Software Builders And Multi Product Platforms Get A Clearer Path
“The CFTC will explore ways in which the agency can encourage innovation in software development and support builders as they work toward product market fit, including by assessing whether an innovation exemption may be appropriate in certain circumstances.”
This targets a hard issue in crypto regulation. Wallets, interfaces, and on chain software do not fit cleanly into rules built around centralized intermediaries. If the CFTC creates clearer room for software development and early stage testing, legal uncertainty will be reduced for teams building core infrastructure.
“As part of this harmonization effort, we will examine whether substituted compliance can achieve equivalent or better regulatory outcomes at lower costs for market participants.”
See: Atkins Testimony Targets IPO Burden And Crypto Rules
This is about cost, duplication, and speed. Overlapping requirements can turn compliance into a barrier to entry. Substituted compliance can cut repeated work where two regimes are trying to solve the same control problem.
“Within the bounds of the law and where appropriate, market participants should be able to offer multiple products through a single platform without navigating an inefficient patchwork of registrations and overlapping regulatory regimes.”
This points to a model where firms can run more of their product stack under one platform instead of splitting activity across separate legal and operational silos. That can improve operating leverage for exchanges, brokers, and infrastructure firms that want to offer more than one regulated product. Also see broader SEC direction in Atkins crypto rules testimony.
3. Retail Leveraged Crypto And Event Contracts (eg. Prediction Markets) Get A Reset
“I have directed CFTC staff to begin drafting rules clarifying when leveraged, margined, or financed retail commodity transactions in crypto may be offered off-exchange under an ‘actual delivery’ exception.”
Retail users can already get leveraged crypto in some places, but U.S. rules have left big gaps in what is clearly allowed. If the CFTC writes clearer rules, firms will know which leverage products they can offer, which ones are off limits, and what steps they must follow to stay compliant.
“I have directed CFTC staff to explore the creation of a new category of DCM registration that is tailored specifically to retail leveraged, margined, or financed crypto asset trading.”
This suggests the CFTC may create a new kind of regulated exchange category built specifically for retail leveraged crypto trading. If it does, firms will be able to design products and go to market using a clearer venue rulebook, and exchanges will compete on who can offer the best compliant access and distribution.
“First, I have directed CFTC staff to withdraw the 2024 event contracts rule proposal that would prohibit political and sports-related event contracts and the 2025 staff advisory.”
This removes a major source of uncertainty around prediction markets.
“Second, looking ahead, and in the spirit of markets that trade on expectations, I have directed CFTC staff to move forward with drafting an event contracts rulemaking.”
Withdrawing the old proposal reduces near term uncertainty, but new event contract regulations would spell out which event-based contracts are allowed, what monitoring and controls platforms must run, and how firms can build prediction style products without guessing where the line is.
What This Means For Builders And Investors
These speech commitments point to a practical attempt to aggregate more products, more liquidity, and more infrastructure into regulated US channels. Tokenized collateral, perpetuals, retail leveraged crypto, and event contracts are all in the spotlight with real market share potential. Companies that can meet the bar for custody, risk controls, disclosures, and auditable operations can begin building onshore products more confidentially than they could before.
Also, OCC Issues Rulemaking Notice for Stablecoin Issuance
The CFTC and SEC discussion focuses on market structure, but tokenized collateral and onshore crypto venues still rely on a settlement instrument that can hold up under supervision. That is why the stablecoin perimeter matters.
See: MiCA Vs UK Crypto Rules And Global Fintech Competition
On February 25, 2026, the OCC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (See: OCC stablecoin NPRM) to implement the GENIUS Act (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act) for payment stablecoin issuance and related activities under OCC jurisdiction, including national banks and their subsidiaries, federal savings associations and their subsidiaries, federal branches and their subsidiaries, and foreign payment stablecoin issuers, along with entities approved as federal qualified payment stablecoin issuers and certain state qualified issuers. The OCC points to a new 12 CFR 15 that covers reserve assets, redemption, risk management, audits and supervision, custody, applications and registrations, examination of foreign issuers, and a capital and operational backstop.
Also, Congress Hits New Impasse On Stablecoin Rules
While the OCC moves ahead with rulemaking under the GENIUS Act, the legislative framework for crypto market structure is still contested in Washington. A Reuters report from March 5, 2026 on the crypto bill impasse in Congress describes renewed disagreement over stablecoin related customer rewards and whether they could draw deposits away from banks. The dispute shows that even as regulators move ahead with rules for trading infrastructure, tokenized collateral, and stablecoin issuance, Congress is still debating how far crypto firms should be allowed to compete with the traditional deposit system.
Talking Point
If the CFTC and SEC push tokenized collateral, perpetuals, and event contracts into regulated channels while the OCC pushes stablecoin issuance into a bank style rulebook, does the next U.S. advantage move to firms that can run both market structure and the cash leg under supervision?
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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LinkedIn Identity Checks Show The New Privacy Cost Of Trust
Mar 4, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Insight | Regtech And Identity And Privacy
Identity Verification Privacy And Consent Risk
On Feb 16 2026, an interesting post at The Local Stack conducted a recent LinkedIn identity verification analysis via a real user experience of a larger fintech issue: modern identity checks now collect far more than most people expect, and the privacy tradeoff is becoming harder to ignore as regulated onboarding expands across financial services, platforms, and digital marketplaces.
Persona’s identity verification policy shows the scale of that collection. The policy lists government ID images, selfies, biometric information, NFC chip data, device data, geolocation, usage data, and checks against third party data sources. It also states that uploaded ID images may be used to train or improve the service, and that information may be shared with service providers, data partners, affiliates, and government authorities in some circumstances.
Three Things Fintech Leaders (and Consumers) Need To Know
1. Identity verification now reaches well beyond document review. A current verification flow can combine document capture, face matching, biometric analysis, device signals, location data, and external database checks in one session. That means the onboarding event is no longer just a fraud control. It is a multi layer data collection workflow that carries legal, operational, and reputational risk.
2. The trust layer often sits with a specialist vendor, not the brand the user sees. A customer may think they are verifying with LinkedIn, a bank, or a fintech app. In practice, the verification is often run by a third party with its own privacy terms, data sources, subcontractors, retention rules, and model improvement rights. That gap between front end trust and back end processing is where privacy friction starts.
See: AI Governance Gaps Exposed By Legal Leaders
3. Privacy design now affects conversion. When users feel overexposed, abandonment risk rises. Firms that explain what's collected, why it's needed, who processes it, and how long it's kept are more likely to keep trust intact through onboarding. In identity verification, transparency is becoming part of product design.
Trust First Onboarding Design
Map every data field in the verification flow, not just the front end prompts. Disclose which vendor runs the check and what that vendor can do with the data. Remove optional collection that doesn't improve the actual risk decision. Review training, retention, and subcontractor clauses in vendor contracts. Put the plain language explanation before the scan starts, not after the user has already submitted a passport and selfie.
These steps become more important as Canada moves toward broader data portability and consumer directed finance. NCFA has already covered the wider privacy backdrop in North America privacy trends and the policy direction in CSA data portability consultation. Canada’s consumer-driven banking framework and the Consumer-Driven Banking Act push the market toward safer, permissioned data sharing. As that framework matures, identity credentials may become more reusable across providers, which could reduce repeated document collection while increasing pressure for stricter consent controls, narrower data use, and clearer liability when verification vendors sit in the middle.
Where This Is Heading
Identity verification is moving from a hidden compliance step to a visible trust product. More onboarding flows will combine biometrics, device intelligence, and third party data. More enterprise buyers will ask whether vendors can use customer data to improve models. More regulators will look at whether the scope of collection matches the actual risk being assessed. The firms that win will not be the ones that collect the most data. They will be the ones that collect the least data needed to deliver a defensible result.
Talking Point
When identity checks collect more than most users expect, do the firms with the clearest privacy design earn more trust than the firms with the most aggressive control stack?
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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MiCA Vs UK Crypto Rules And Global Fintech Competition
Mar 4, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Insight | Digital Assets And Policy And Regulation
Image: Freepik/diana.grytsku
Passporting Scale Versus Tighter Supervision
On February 27 2026, the FCA set the application window for UK cryptoasset permission under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. The window opens on September 30 2026 and closes on February 28 2027. FCA webinar guidance also points to October 25 2027 as the date the new regime goes live.
This confirms the UK is moving crypto firms into the same permissioned structure used across traditional financial services (UK draft crypto rules). A firm that already operates under anti money laundering registration now faces a full authorisation process, a narrower transition path, and a higher standard on governance, controls, safeguarding, financial resources, and senior accountability.
Two Regulatory Models Are Competing
The UK model prioritizes integration with established financial regulation. It raises the operating bar and can favour firms with stronger compliance infrastructure, clearer ownership structures, and the capital to support ongoing supervision. That can improve institutional credibility, but it also increases readiness cost and raises the threshold for smaller firms.
The EU model is different. MiCA creates a dedicated crypto rulebook, and that structure supports cross border expansion through one member state authorisation and EU passporting. One licence can open access across the single market. NCFA has already covered that operating advantage in MiCA licence unlocks EU access.
Canada Sits In A Different Middle Ground
Canada has a domestic passport framework, but it's not the same as EU style passporting across sovereign countries inside a single massively connected market. CSA regulatory cooperation reduces duplication across participating provinces and territories, but Ontario does has not formally adopted the passport rule despite Canada's need to reduce duplication and regulatory burden. Ontario's passport status still emains outside MI 11-102, with Ontario using an interface and reliance model instead.
A Canadian crypto platform can use the passport process to expand across much of Canada, but of course it doesn't get the scale benefit that MiCA passporting provides across the EU with market access to 450 million. The compliance cost can still be high, while the addressable market remains much smaller. Canada also continues to raise the operating bar through supervision and custody expectations, including CIRO’s digital asset custody framework. See: NCFA’s Weekly Fintech Intelligence Jan 31-Feb 6, 2026.
Collectively this puts Canada's approach to crypto regulation closer to the UK on operating discipline than to the EU on market scale. Also worth noting varying consumer differences between UK and Canada crypto consumers.
What Builders And Investors Need To Decide
These models now reward different business strategies. The UK offers deeper integration with traditional financial supervision and may suit firms that want institutional positioning, bank grade credibility, and a tighter regulatory perimeter.
The EU offers faster regional scale through passporting and may suit firms that need broader customer reach across multiple markets.
Canada offers a more controlled path, but one that can be slower to scale and more operationally demanding relative to market size.
See: Atkins Testimony Targets IPO Burden And Crypto Rules
For exchanges, brokerages, wallets, custody providers, and compliance firms, this is now a jurisdiction choice with direct consequences for licensing cost, expansion speed, product sequencing, and capital planning. For investors, it changes where operating leverage may be easiest to achieve. The question is not whether crypto gets regulated. The question is which regulatory architecture creates the best conditions for durable growth.
Talking Point
When the UK raises the authorisation bar, the EU offers passporting scale, and Canada keeps a tighter supervised path, which model attracts more builders, more capital, and more long term market share?
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Vivox AI Raises £1.3M To Scale Compliance Agents
Mar 4, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Activity | Regtech And Financial Crime Compliance
AI image robot analyzing financial data in office
AI Agents Enter Financial Crime Operations
On March 4 2026, UK based Vivox AI raised £1.3 million to scale AI agents built for AML, KYB, and KYC workflows inside regulated financial institutions.
Vivox AI ties the raise to current deployment claims across enterprise customers operating in more than 100 countries, including the UK, Europe, the United States, and Singapore. The release says complex compliance case processing time falls from about six hours to about 30 minutes, false positive screening alerts fall by up to 86%, and straight through processing reaches up to 50% for selected onboarding and due diligence workflows.
AI Agents Move Into AML And KYC Workflows
AML, KYC, and KYB work is repetitive, document heavy, and costly. Time per case, alert volume, and exception handling drive staffing levels and backlog risk. The goal is to target those exact cost drivers. Less time per case reduces analyst hours. Lower false positive rates reduce review load. Higher clean through processing reduces manual touch rates.
See: Which Fintech Processes Are Most Ready for Agentic AI
The product is described as separate task agents rather than one general AI layer. That design fits regulated workflows more closely because onboarding, due diligence, screening, and case handling can be controlled, tested, monitored, and audited as separate processes. In practice, compliance teams need faster file handling, cleaner audit trails, and fewer manual reviews that do not add risk insight.
Canada recently updated its Canada anti fraud policy and continues to raise expectations on prevention, detection, and reporting. That pushes more pressure through AML, KYC, and KYB operations while boosting financial crime compliance innovation.
Vivox AI is entering a category where established Canadian and Canada connected firms already cover adjacent parts of the stack. Trulioo identity verification supports global KYC and KYB onboarding. iComply compliance automation covers modular AML, KYC, KYB, and KYT workflows. Nasdaq Verafin financial crime controls serves financial institutions with AML, fraud, and investigation tools. Vivox AI’s stated position is narrower and more execution focused: task specific agents inside case work, screening, and due diligence workflows.
For operators key metrics such as time saved per case, false positive rates, exception rates, audit evidence quality, and post approval error rates will determine whether automation lowers cost or adds a second layer of review.
Talking Point
If compliance automation cuts a six hour case to 30 minutes and reduces false positives by up to 86%, does workflow design replace compliance team size as the main scaling lever?
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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India’s AI Declaration Pulls In BRICS And Western Powers
Mar 2, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Insight | AI And Market Structure
Over 90+ Countries Back AI Declaration Across Rival Power Blocs
On February 21 2026, India’s AI declaration (from it's AI Impact Summit 2026 held in New Delhi from Feb 18-19, 2026) got 91 countries and international organizations behind a voluntary and non-binding framework on AI access, trusted systems, workforce development, scientific use, energy efficiency, and economic growth. Canada is on the list. So are the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, China, Russia, Japan, and India.
That kind of participation is a strong policy marker that still makes it relevant for fintech because the document goes straight at the building blocks that determine who can deploy AI at scale and who gets left behind. Affordable compute, trusted tools, resilient infrastructure, workforce skills, and broader access to AI resources all sit closer to the practical operating requirements for financial institutions and fintechs than generic summit language usually does.
One of the interesting facts about the declarative coalition itself is ten of the 11 BRICS members also appear on the declaration list. That means roughly 90.9% of the Brics bloc also signed onto the same AI framework. On a second axis, six of the 10 named Board of Peace funding contributors also appear on the declaration list. That overlap does not make the declaration binding, but it does show India assembled broader support than a narrow Western technology coalition.
See: Canada And India Open A New Finance And Payments Dialogue
AI infrastructure is becoming a competitive input, not just a policy topic. The countries that line up early around access, trusted systems, and workforce capacity can make it easier for domestic firms to adopt AI tools across lending, compliance, onboarding, fraud controls, customer support, and internal operations. The countries that lag on compute access, skills, or deployment frameworks risk a wider productivity gap.
Canada signed onto a wide multilateral AI framework that includes both major Western economies and most of BRICS. That doesn't create immediate legal obligations. It does, however, strengthen the case for domestic follow through on AI infrastructure, talent, and trusted deployment if Canada wants its fintech and financial services firms to stay competitive as AI moves deeper into core operations.
Talking Point
If nearly the full BRICS bloc and much of the Western alliance can align on a voluntary AI framework, does the next real competitive divide come down to execution rather than diplomacy?
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Coincheck Completes 3iQ Deal In Canada Crypto Expansion
Mar 2, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Activity | Digital Assets And Market Structure
Cross Border Digital Asset Consolidation
On February 28 2026, Coincheck completed its 3iQ acquisition, taking about 99.8% beneficial ownership of the Ontario based digital asset manager and turning an announced January 3iQ agreement into a finished cross-border ownership change with direct Canadian relevance.
Coincheck Group is the holding company of Coincheck, one of Japan’s largest crypto asset exchanges. Monex Group remains the controlling shareholder of Coincheck Group and was also the seller in the 3iQ transaction. That fact makes this deal more than just a portfolio add, and moves a Canadian digital asset manager into a larger international platform that already spans exchange access, brokerage, staking, and institutional client distribution.
Why This Deal Counts
3iQ brings a regulated product track record that already has market credibility in Canada. 3iQ product history includes becoming Canada’s first regulated digital asset investment fund manager in 2017, launching one of the first diversified crypto funds in 2018, and bringing major exchange listed Bitcoin and Ether funds to the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2020. More recent expansion added managed accounts, Ethereum staking products, a Solana staking ETF, and a spot based XRP ETF. That mix gives Coincheck immediate reach into regulated investment wrappers that already matter to institutional allocators.
Coincheck’s institutional buildout now includes 3iQ in Canada, Aplo in France (Oct 2025), and Next Finance in staking infrastructure (Apr 2025). Digital asset firms are consolidating beyond single product competition and toward control of a wider institutional stack. Distribution, regulated wrappers, staking capability, and client relationships carry more strategic value when the market shifts from retail access to institutional scale.
See: Terraform Lawsuit Puts Jane Street In Crypto Spotlight
For Canada, this is a reminder that proven digital asset platforms continue to attract global buyers. Leading digital assets companies may be the groups that control more of the full client path, from exchange access and staking to regulated investment products and institutional distribution.
Talking Point
As crypto firms consolidate across exchanges, staking, brokerage, and regulated funds, does long term value move to the groups that control more of the institutional stack?
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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