Bitcoin went mainstream in a big way in 2013, with banks and countries alike trying to figure out where the online cryptocurrency fits into the financial landscape. Canada is the latest country to make a formal statement, though the country doesn’t sound like it quite knows what to do with Bitcoin just yet.
Canadian officials have been pretty quiet in the bitcoin debate, but the government’s stance became clearer on Thursday. Canada doesn’t consider bitcoin to be legal tender, a government official said, putting a question mark over the use of the increasingly popular virtual currency here. “Only Canadian bank notes and coins are recognized as legal tender in Canada. Bitcoin digital ‘currency’ is not legal tender in Canada,” an official from Canada’s finance department said in an emailed statement.