June 24, 2025

This months issue is a 7 min read

As June winds down, Canadian businesses head into the summer with guarded optimism.

A long anticipated trade deal with the U.S. appears within reach, potentially relieving export uncertainty and tariff-related cost pressures. Meanwhile, new legislation aimed at removing interprovincial barriers could unlock fresh domestic opportunities and attract new capital inflows. We're already seeing increased deal flow and renewed appetite for growth.

But the landscape remains complex. Lending conditions continue to tighten under Basel III, geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and Europe cast a shadow over global trade, and regulatory oversight - especially from the Competition Bureau and CSA on ESG claims - is ramping up.

No shift however is as far-reaching, or as immediate, as the adoption of artificial intelligence. In this month's issue of IWG, we spotlight a rapidly accelerating trend: Canadian issuers pivoting into digital currencies and decentralized AI. Is this just another small-cap identity shitf? Or the emergence of a real, investable sector?



From TradingView

As of close on Monday June 23, 2025

Leaders from across the G7 (and a few non-G7 countries) met in Kananaskis, Alberta last week to discuss the myriad of issues facing the world, including global trade, tensions in the middle-east and Ukraine, and energy security among others.

The Bank of Canada held rates at 2.75% in their decision earlier this month, citing continued economic uncertainty and shifting trade policy. The decision leaves the bank options to ease throughout the remainder of 2025 should the economy face a continued slowdown. The federal reserve followed suit last week and held their rate steady at a targeted range of 4.25%-4.50%.

Google announced plans to deploy a C$13M AI opportunity fund while Telus launched a C$1M #StandWithOwners contest for SMEs. The programs are designed to help small and mid cap tech firms access talent and integrate AI into their processes at a time when adoption is crucial for competitiveness and relevance.

Recently, our capital markets team has noticed a new trend gaining momentum: nano-cap issuers pivoting away from legacy industries and into emerging technologies. Is this just another classic Canadian small-cap “flash-in-the-pan,” or are we witnessing the early stages of a new subsector with real staying power?

Case in point: Good Flour Corp (GFCO) announced this month that it’s rebranding as Intellistake Technologies Corp., pivoting away from gluten-free baking toward decentralized AI and digital currencies. It's a bold move—but not an isolated one. We're seeing more companies make similar transitions, chasing a tech-finance sector projected to hit $50 billion by 2028.

Centralized vs Decentralized AI



Centralized AI: big tech companies collect massive datasets, run training on huge centralized servers, and control how AI models are deployed and monetized. While effective for nascent AI development, it presents problems with data privacy, unequal access, and a lack of transparency.

Decentralized AI flips this model: It spreads computation, data ownership, and decision-making across networks of individuals, devices, and organizations - leading to a more transparent, integrated and censorship-resistant ecosystem.

In return for providing data and computing power for model training, contributors are rewarded with digital tokens.

Ramesh Raskar | MIT Media Lab

“We all know what’s happening in the AI world, large tech companies or organizations are centralizing data, compute, and even governance, and this is unsustainable because in many applications, whether it be Health, Finance, Surveillance, Mining, the data is owned by individuals or individual organizations who don’t want to share it. So the idea behind decentralized AI is the ability to work across distrusted, disconnected and disinterested entities, and take their partial information to create a global AI."

In a decentralized AI ecosystem, digital tokens serve as the incentive layer and trust mechanism that make it all possible.

By introducing a financial incentive, tokens create information marketplaces that encourage participation and reward transparency, creating a self-sustaining framework where value is shared, not extracted.

As more entities across all business sectors participate, the model trains on a more diverse, real-world set of data, and can explain the relationship between two fragments of our economy that otherwise may seem dislocated. More sophisticated and reflective models provide companies with more insight into their supply chains, stakeholder and consumer demographics, and competitive landscape.

Grove client Faster - a digital payments specialist - is already aligning its business model with these principles, leveraging blockchain and AI to rethink traditional services. We asked founder Justin Reynolds about how participation in this network can provide benefits for his company. 

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"Decentralized-AI networks let every payment touchpoint, whether it’s a card terminal, a mobile wallet, or even an e-Transfer gateway, earn money while doing its day job. We place the network’s tokens into a smart contract (‘staking’), then share anonymous transaction patterns and spare computing power with a shared AI engine. In return, the protocol pays extra tokens, which can be kept or passed back to merchants. Suddenly, devices that used to be overhead become mini revenue centres, adding a steady stream of token income on top of normal payment fees.”

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While Faster integrates decentralized AI into its business model, Intellistake Technologies is showing us how it can become the core focus of a business. Through AI agent development, validating operations, investing in digital currencies and currency staking, Intellistake Technologies is advancing the decentralized infrastructure. Quite a shift from gluten-free baking. The growth and adoption of decentralized AI presents new opportunities for all companies across the corporate gradient.

So, Where’s The Investment Opportunity?

Smart investors are positioning early. Here’s where capital is flowing:



• Token Exposure – Buy, stake, or earn native tokens (e.g. FET, TAO).
• Infrastructure – Invest in GPU providers, data storage networks, and decentralized compute firms.
• AI-Powered DeFi – Explore yield farming, algorithmic trading, and AI-native governance platforms.
• Pre-Token Ventures – Get in early through equity + token warrants in promising AI/crypto startups.
• Governance Participation – Secure validator roles, vote on key updates, and shape project direction.

The convergence of AI and digital currencies isn't just a trend - it's a tectonic shift. And yes, sometimes the best ideas start with pancakes.

Additional Resources

• AI Simplified: Courses Tailored for Small Businesses in Canada

• Blockchain, AI, and Finance in Canada: Why They're a Perfect Match

• Adoption of A.I. Tech Within Canadian Finance Above Global Average: Report

• Canada has a Decentralized Ace up its Sleeve in the Global AI Race

• Decentralized AI: Moving Beyond Big Tech's Walled Gardens, Forbes

Where insight meets opportunity - tailored solutions and strategic guidance to help you navigate the capital markets with confidence. Reply to this email or reach out to Nick at nick@grovecorp.ca to explore how Grove can help your business.

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