We don’t tread lightly into new geographies, and our expansion into Canada is no exception. Flexa will become available to Canadians in two stages:

First, we’re opening up the existing Flexa network to Canadian residents, who can try Flexa for the first time today by downloading the SPEDN app from the App Store or Google Play and visiting our SPEDN Shop pop-up at Toronto’s Blockchain Futurist conference, now through August 14. Second, we’re bringing instant cryptocurrency payments online in 7,500+ merchant locations across Canada (including some of the nation’s largest retail, entertainment, and fuel brands) by the first week of September.

What’s more, because Flexa is built on top of cryptocurrencies (which are borderless by their very nature), Flexa’s Canadian customers can spend freely on the network when they visit the United States—starting today. And similarly, when our Canadian merchant partners go live north of the border, US residents will be able to spend their cryptocurrency in Canada without having to worry about foreign exchange rates or conversion fees. Flexa wallet deposits will continue to be securely custodied and fully insured through our partnership with Gemini, which makes SPEDN one of the easiest and safest ways to use your cryptocurrency wherever you go.

We think that seamless, fee-free, cross-border commerce is one of the most impactful use cases that cryptocurrency can provide. And because Flexa doesn’t require the use of credit cards, debit cards, or bank accounts, we’re not tethered to the traditional financial system or its inherent fiat inflexibility.

To bring Flexa to Canada, we’ve partnered with Coinsquare, Canada’s largest and most secure cryptocurrency exchange. Based in Toronto, Coinsquare has spent the last several years building one of the most compliant and innovative exchange businesses in the industry. We’re honored to work with their team to enable cryptocurrency payments for merchants in Canada, and look forward to deepening our relationship as we get closer to releasing Flexacoin collateralization and the Flexa Wallet SDK for iOS and Android.

Launching Flexa to customers outside of the United States—and in turn, bringing affordable, secure, and fraud-free payments to even more people—brings us one step closer to fulfilling our ambition of making cryptocurrency spendable everywhere, and rebuilding payment acceptance for the modern era. But of course, we’re still just getting started. Over the coming weeks, we’ll not only expand our acceptance network across international borders and bring even more folks into the SPEDN beta, but also share more information on Flexacoin collateralization and the availability of the Flexa Wallet SDK.

As always, we thank you for your support in helping to make this dream a reality! We’ve been delighted by the photos and videos that you’ve shared, and the feedback you’ve given us toward making Flexa and the SPEDN app even better. The reaction to Flexa thus far has been simply incredible.

Want to join our growing community? To stay informed, and get updates when we release details about our first merchants in Canada, follow us on Twitter or join our Telegram channel.