Powering Growth and Competitiveness lands in Toronto - friction points and legal gaps on the table
Canada's securities regulators have invited stakeholders to livestream their Toronto tokenization workshop on Thursday, June 11, 2026, the next stop in Project Tokenization.
The Canadian Securities Administrators announced on May 20, 2026, that the session - titled Powering Growth and Competitiveness - will run from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m. ET. The workshop builds on an earlier discussion held in Calgary on Thursday, April 9, and is part of the CSA's broader effort to figure out how tokenized financial products fit within Canadian securities laws.
For fund managers, advisors and others working in capital markets, the agenda is worth a look. The CSA says the Toronto session will include discussions about key existing and potential use cases that can reduce costs or improve efficiencies, legal questions requiring further analysis and resolution, friction points with existing securities laws, and topics that could benefit from regulatory guidance.
Project Tokenization was launched as the Fall 2025 theme of the CSA Collaboratory, the regulator's working space for emerging issues. Four CSA members are participating: the Alberta Securities Commission, the British Columbia Securities Commission, the Ontario Securities Commission, and Quebec's Autorité des marchés financiers.
The CSA describes tokenization as the process of creating, issuing or representing rights to real or digital assets through a digital token recorded using distributed ledger technologies. One prominent application, the regulator notes, is the tokenization of certain financial assets in capital markets.
The Canadian effort follows work by international standard-setters. The CSA points to policy recommendations from the International Organization of Securities Commissions, the Financial Stability Board, the Bank for International Settlements, the Global Financial Innovation Network and the International Monetary Fund, covering governance, custody, market integrity, cross-border cooperation and operational risk in tokenized markets. Those bodies, the CSA says, have recognized tokenization as a priority area, reflecting a growing consensus on the need for consistent regulatory outcomes and harmonized standards.
The project is structured in phases. The CSA says the initial phase will explore the opportunities and risks of tokenization through engagement with stakeholders, issue mapping and targeted research. Subsequent phases could include a discussion paper or potentially the live testing of tokenized financial instruments and infrastructure within the CSA Collaboratory.
The regulator is asking for input from market participants, technology providers, investor representatives and other interested parties. Insights from the Collaboratory, the CSA says, can contribute to regulatory policy development and give market participants data to help inform decision-making.
The CSA describes itself as the council of securities regulators of Canada's provinces and territories, with an objective to improve, coordinate and harmonize regulation of the Canadian capital markets.
The full text of the news release, CSA invites stakeholders to join its tokenization workshop in Toronto, is available on the Ontario Securities Commission website. Background on the broader initiative is set out at https://www.securities-administrators.ca/csa-activities/csa-finhub/collaboratory/fall-2025-theme-tokenization/.
