Bitcoin Is Down 3.6% This Year in US Dollars. In Canadian Dollars It Is Down 0.9%
Bitcoin has had a poor year in the currency everyone quotes it in. In the currency Canadians actually spend, it has had a nearly flat one. Through the September 23 close, Bitcoin (BTC) was down 3.57% in 2026 measured in US dollars and down 0.91% measured in Canadian dollars. Same asset, same nine months, two answers that differ by 2.66 percentage points.
That gap is not a rounding artefact or a quirk of which exchange you look at. It is the Canadian dollar, and this year it has been quietly subsidising every Canadian who owns Bitcoin without a currency hedge. It has also been quietly penalising the ones who paid a fund to remove exactly that effect.
As of 7:04 am ET on September 24, Bitcoin traded at $83,579 USD, down 0.95% on the day, which is $117,907 CAD. Ethereum (ETH) was at $2,651 USD, or $3,741 CAD, down 1.21%.
The year, in both currencies
Measured from the December 31, 2025 close to the September 23, 2026 close:
| Measured in | Start | September 23 | 2026 return |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin, US dollars | $87,509 USD | $84,383 USD | -3.57% |
| Bitcoin, Canadian dollars | $120,108 CAD | $119,016 CAD | -0.91% |
| Ethereum, US dollars | $2,967 USD | $2,685 USD | -9.52% |
| Ethereum, Canadian dollars | $4,072 CAD | $3,787 CAD | -7.02% |
The two lines start together in January and separate steadily. By late September the Canadian-dollar line sits at 99.1 against 96.4 for the US-dollar line.
The loonie did the work
The mechanism is not complicated. Over the same stretch the Canadian dollar fell 2.64% against the US dollar, from 0.7302 to 0.7109, which is 1.3695 to 1.4066 the other way round. A Canadian holding an asset priced in US dollars gains whatever the greenback gains against the loonie. Bitcoin lost ground in US dollars this year and the currency handed most of it back.
This is worth saying plainly because it cuts the other way just as hard. Nothing about a weak Canadian dollar is a feature of Bitcoin, and it is not something a holder should count on repeating. The loonie was not weak all year: it peaked at 0.74118 on January 30 and bottomed at 0.702484 on June 25. Had it finished 2026 where it started, the Canadian-dollar return would look like the US-dollar one. A Canadian who owns Bitcoin unhedged owns two positions, one in Bitcoin and one short the loonie, and only one of them was chosen deliberately.
What the funds actually delivered
This is measurable rather than theoretical, because the Purpose Bitcoin ETF lists both versions of the same fund. Per Purpose Investments’ own fund page, BTCC is the currency-hedged class, BTCC.B is the non-hedged class, BTCC.U is the US-dollar class, and every class carries a 1.00% management fee, with a management expense ratio of 1.26% to 1.46% as of June 30, 2026. Identical Bitcoin, identical manager, one difference.
On adjusted closes over the same nine months, BTCC.B returned -1.55% and BTCC returned -6.39%. The choice of unit class was worth 4.84 percentage points, on a fund whose underlying asset moved less than 4%. The currency decision mattered more than the Bitcoin decision.
The same split shows up in Ethereum. Purpose’s ETHH.B, the unhedged class, returned -8.48% year to date against -12.81% for the hedged ETHH, a spread of 4.33 points.
Why the hedged class lagged even the US-dollar price
Notice that BTCC did not simply deliver Bitcoin’s US-dollar return. Bitcoin fell 3.57% in US dollars and the hedged class fell 6.39%, lagging by 2.82 points. Two things account for most of that.
The first is fees. A 1.00% management fee over not quite nine months is roughly three quarters of a point.
The second is the cost of the hedge itself, which is set by the gap between Canadian and American short-term interest rates. The Bank of Canada’s policy interest rate stands at 2.25%. The effective federal funds rate was 3.88% on September 22 against a target range of 3.75% to 4.00%, per the New York Fed’s reference rates. When Canadian rates sit well below American ones, selling US dollars forward to hedge locks in a worse rate than spot, and the holder pays that difference for as long as the hedge runs. A hedge removes a risk. It is not free, and this year it was expensive.
None of which makes hedging wrong. It makes it a decision with a price attached, and one that a Canadian buying a crypto fund should make on purpose rather than by picking whichever ticker appeared first.
What it means for a Canadian holder
Two practical consequences follow.
The first is that the return you should judge yourself on is the Canadian-dollar one, because that is the currency your rent is denominated in. Reading US-dollar headlines and feeling the US-dollar drawdown is a small, persistent mismatch between what you are watching and what you own.
The second is tax. The Canada Revenue Agency does not care what an asset did in US dollars. A disposition is converted to Canadian dollars at the relevant exchange rate, which means the taxable gain follows the Canadian-dollar path, not the one on the chart most exchanges show. In a year like this one, a position that looks like a loss in US dollars can be a smaller loss, or even a gain, once it is expressed the way it must be reported. Getting the conversion right at each transaction is the whole game, and we walked through calculating crypto adjusted cost base for the CRA separately. If the broader question of how investment gains and income are taxed in Canada is the one you are actually asking, our guide to investment income tax covers the categories.
The longer record
One year does not settle anything, so here is the same comparison over longer windows, all measured to the September 23, 2026 close:
| Period | Bitcoin, US dollars | Bitcoin, Canadian dollars | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 year to date | -3.57% | -0.91% | 2.66 points |
| One year | -24.67% | -23.22% | 1.45 points |
| Two years | 33.24% | 38.90% | 5.66 points |
| Three years | 220.87% | 236.45% | 15.58 points |
The Canadian-dollar figure is higher in every window, which is a fact about the last three years of currency markets rather than a law of nature. Ethereum shows the same pattern: 69.03% in US dollars over three years against 77.24% in Canadian dollars.
The drawdowns carry the same tilt. From its October 6, 2025 high of $124,753 USD, Bitcoin is 32.36% below the peak. In Canadian dollars, from $173,972 CAD, it is 31.59% below. From the 2026 high set on January 14, it is 12.94% down in US dollars and 11.58% down in Canadian dollars.
What would change this
The currency tailwind reverses if the Canadian dollar strengthens, and the most obvious route to that is the interest rate gap closing. The Bank of Canada’s next decision is October 28, and as of this morning the market put roughly 47% odds on a hike from 2.25%. A Canadian rate rising toward the American one narrows the spread that has been pushing the loonie down, which would shrink the Canadian-dollar premium on these returns and, at the same time, make hedging cheaper.
Watch that rather than the Bitcoin chart if you want to know which of these two numbers is going to be the flattering one next year. For readers weighing how to get exposure in the first place, our page on Canadian crypto stocks covers the listed route alongside the funds discussed here.
Disclaimer: The content on bestcanadianstocks.ca is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Always consult a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions. Market data as of 7:04 am ET, September 24, 2026. Return windows measured on completed daily closes to September 23, 2026. Fund class returns from adjusted closes; class structure and fees from Purpose Investments. Rates from the Bank of Canada and the New York Fed.
