03 — FX Cost Calculator
For a Canadian business running cross-border treasury, every dollar that travels through USDC pays the FX spread twice — out and back. Model your own flows below to see what a CAD-native stablecoin (QCAD or CADD) would save annually.
Annualized savings · CAD-native vs. USDC route
Routing $5,000,000 of cross-border volume per year through a CAD-native stablecoin (QCAD or CADD) instead of via USDC saves the full round-trip FX spread on both legs.
One-way CAD volume sent abroad per year. Round-trip cost includes the matching return leg.
Spread your bank or FX provider charges to convert CAD↔USD. 50–100 bps is typical for corporate; 200+ bps for retail.
How many on-chain settlements you'll run. 2,400 ≈ 10 per business day.
Gas + service fee. Cheaper on Base/Tempo (~$0.50–$2); more on Ethereum mainnet.
Round-trip cost to mint and redeem QCAD or CADD against CAD. Issuer-published rates currently 5–25 bps.
USDC route
CAD-native
Methodology
Round-trip FX cost assumes your counterparty is also a Canadian or CAD-paying entity, so the notional flows out and back. If your counterparty bills in USD, you only pay one FX leg — halve the spread cost accordingly. On-chain fees use a 1.36 USD/CAD reference rate. The CAD-native mint/redeem spread reflects QCAD's authorized-partner pricing and CADD's published institutional rates as of May 2026; retail rates may differ. Excludes treasury operations cost, custody fees, and counterparty risk capital.
of stablecoins in circulation are pegged to the US dollar. For a Canadian business, every cross-border payment routed through stablecoin rails today implicitly pays the CAD↔USD FX spread.
Round-trip flows pay the FX spread twice: once converting CAD into USD/USDC, and again converting USDC back to CAD on the return. CAD-native stablecoins eliminate both legs.
is the typical mint/redeem spread for a regulated CAD stablecoin against CAD deposits — versus 50–250 bps for institutional CAD↔USD FX.
When a USD leg is unavoidable, Circle's StableFX settles QCAD↔USDC directly onchain — payment-versus-payment, T+0, no nostro pre-funding — compressing even the cost of necessary conversion across the ~$150B/day USD/CAD corridor. Live on Arc testnet (May 2026); production follows mainnet.