Cryptocurrency firm Coinbase is bullish on the Canadian digital asset market as it expands into the country.

On Monday, the U.S.-based company announced Interac integration among the new features on its platform, a signal of its commitment to the Canadian market at a time when the regulations have other exchanges pulling back.

Nana Murugesan, Coinbase’s vice-president of international business development, said research shows about 15 per cent of Canadians are interested in owning digital assets, and the figure is expected to double in the next year.

“There’s huge growth expected in Canada, there’s a lot of interest,” he told BNN Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, Lucas Matheson, Coinbase’s Canada country director, also pointed Canada’s crypto startup market as a reason behind his company’s excitement about expanding in the country.

“Canada’s very well-positioned to be a leader in the crypto economy and one of the reasons is we have a very strong developer ecosystem here in Canada,” he also told BNN Bloomberg.  

“There’s a lot of opportunities here for Canadian companies to grow and build a sustainable business that can grow and build and help billions of people access the global economy and we’re excited to help Canadian companies do that.”

With files from The Canadian Press