PANews reported on February 7 that according to Bloomberg, Canadian cryptocurrency companies unexpectedly found a powerful supporter - ATB Financial Bank under the Alberta government. When other financial institutions refused to provide services, the Alberta government was seeking to obtain billions of additional revenue from blockchain companies. As a provincial crown company, ATB Finance has become one of the most trusted banking partners in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries in this context. ATB Finance revealed in a statement that the bank has a team dedicated to serving cryptocurrency and fintech customers, which works closely with various departments across the bank and is committed to providing secure and compliant financial solutions for the industry.

Eric Richmond, general counsel and head of business development at Shakepay, a Canadian cryptocurrency trading platform, pointed out that because cryptocurrency companies see Alberta as a business-friendly region, they began to move to the province and actively lobby for better conditions and more banking services. Koleya Karringten, executive director of the Canadian Blockchain Alliance, also said that there was a time when many Canadian companies actually moved their businesses to Alberta in order to cooperate with ATB.

However, Alex Mehrdad, general manager of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken’s Canadian operations, said that in Canada, while small banks and credit unions like ATB are more willing to work with cryptocurrency exchanges like Kraken, their services are not always comparable to those of large institutions. Mehrdad mentioned that this results in the need to use multiple different intermediaries to handle transactions such as fund transfers, which all increase costs and fees.