Canada to Crypto Donations: Nice Try, Foreign Bots — Here's a $100K Fine

Canada's federal government has dropped the Strong and Free Elections Act — a bill that basically tells crypto donations to go touch grass. Introduced Thursday, the proposed legislation aims to amend the Canada Elections Act to ban political parties and third parties from accepting donations in crypto, money orders, and prepaid cards. The rationale? Anonymous, hard-to-trace contributions that could let foreign actors meddle in elections like it's a DeFi protocol with no KYC. Classic.

Steven MacKinnon, leader of the government in the House of Commons, framed the move as a shield against foreign interference and other election threats. "With the introduction of the Strong and Free Elections Act, new investments to counter foreign threats and stronger government coordination, we are acting to ensure our elections remain free, fair and secure at all times," he posted on X. Basically, "Trust us, we've got this" — but with more regulatory flair.

Canada's not the only party at this dinner. The UK government also announced plans for a moratorium on crypto donations on Thursday, following an independent review and pressure from senior politicians. Turns out, multiple governments decided simultaneously that crypto and elections mix about as well as rug pulls and trust. What a coincidence — or maybe governments have group chat.

This isn't Canada's first attempt at playing gatekeeper. A similar proposal was introduced in 2024 by Dominic LeBlanc, then minister of public safety, but it failed to advance past the second reading in the House of Commons and quietly died. Crypto political donations have been permitted in Canada since 2019, treated similarly to property donations. So for five years, you could apparently just drop some ETH into a political campaign like it was a garage sale. Those were the days.

A 2024 report by Stéphane Perrault, the chief electoral officer, actually recommended banning crypto political donations altogether, noting that it "poses challenges in identifying a contributor." Translation: "We have no idea who just sent us money, and that's keeping us up at night." Fair enough — trying to trace a crypto donation is like trying to trace a transaction on a privacy coin while wearing a tinfoil hat.

If the legislation passes, contributions made using any of the banned payment methods must be returned, destroyed, or delivered to