Key Takeaways
- If the bill becomes law, contributions made using any of the banned payment methods must be returned, destroyed or delivered to the chief electoral officer.
- The bill would ban contributions made in cryptoassets across the political system, covering registered parties, riding associations, candidates, leadership and nomination contestants, and third parties engaged in election advertising
In a major development, Canada’s federal government is pushing to prohibit cryptocurrency donations to political campaigns, introducing legislation that groups digital assets alongside money orders and prepaid payment products as funding channels that are difficult to trace.
Bill C-25, the Strong and Free Elections Act, introduced on March 26, would ban contributions made in cryptoassets across the political system, covering registered parties, riding associations, candidates, leadership and nomination contestants, and third parties engaged in election advertising.
If the bill becomes law, contributions made using any of the banned payment methods must be returned, destroyed or delivered to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO). Penalties for violations could include up to twice the amount contributed, plus $25,000 for individuals and $100,000 for corporate entities.
The ban targets a channel that has seen little to no real-world use in Canadian federal politics. Crypto donations have been permitted since 2019 under an administrative framework that classifies them as non-monetary contributions, similar to property. No major federal party publicly accepted crypto during the 2021 and 2025 elections.
Under the existing framework, such contributions were not eligible for tax credit calculations, contributors of more than $200 had to be publicly identified by name and address, only cryptocurrencies with verifiable public blockchains qualified with privacy coins such as Monero and ZCash excluded, and candidates were required to liquidate holdings into fiat before spending.
The legislation also proposes expanding existing bans on realistic deepfakes that impersonate electoral candidates to mislead voters, an issue that gained attention ahead of the 2024 US elections, with one reported case involving a deepfake of then-President Biden urging voters not to participate.
