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A least 50 firms tied to blockchain and cryptocurrencies are set to list on Canadian stock exchanges in the next year, thanks in part to a junior market that’s more comfortable with risk than other parts of the world, the head of securities firm GMP Capital Inc. said.

“The level of activity in this market of quality plays, quality teams is as high as I’ve seen since the internet age,” Harris Fricker, chief executive officer of the Toronto-based firm said in an interview at Bloomberg’s offices. “Canada’s place in this is dramatically more important than what it was in the first phase of the internet.”

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Canada is emerging as a hub forbitcoin and cryptocurrency stocks amid “a virtuous circle” of expertise and business, backed by a capital markets ecosystem that supports small companies, particularly on the TSX Venture Exchange, Fricker said. While that system has been geared toward miners and oil and gas companies in the past, themarijuana industry has surged to a market value of more than $17 billion ahead of recreational legalization in July, and at least eight cryptocurrency-related stocks are now trading in Canada.