Original author: KarenZ, Foresight News
In mid-May, the US zero-commission trading platform Robinhood announced that it would acquire Canadian digital asset service provider WonderFi for 250 million Canadian dollars (about 179 million US dollars) in cash. This is another major move by Robinhood in the crypto field after the acquisition of Luxembourg exchange Bitstamp for 200 million US dollars in 2024, marking the acceleration of its global crypto layout.
Key details of the acquisition
Under the agreement reached by the two parties, Robinhood will acquire all issued and outstanding common shares of WonderFi for CAD$0.36 per share. The all-cash acquisition price represents a premium of approximately 41% to WonderFis closing price on the Toronto Stock Exchange on May 12 (the last trading day before the transaction was announced) and a premium of approximately 71% to its 30-day volume-weighted average price (VWAP).
This fully demonstrates Robinhoods emphasis on this acquisition and its determination to win. In terms of overall equity value, the total value of this transaction is approximately 250 million Canadian dollars on a fully diluted basis and taking into account all in-the-money options.
The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2025, but is subject to a number of customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, court clearances and the consent of WonderFi shareholders.
Once the acquisition is completed, WonderFi will be officially incorporated into Robinhood Crypto and continue to provide crypto products and services to Canadian customers. WonderFis leadership team will also become part of Robinhood Crypto, helping it to deepen and expand its presence in the Canadian market.
Since establishing its Canadian headquarters in Toronto in 2024, Robinhood has used it as an infrastructure engineering center and has more than 140 employees in Canada. After the acquisition of WonderFi, WonderFis leadership and 115-person team will join Robinhood Cryptos Canadian team to enhance Robinhoods localized operational capabilities in Canada. It is expected that WonderFi will be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange after the transaction is completed.
Why Canada? Why WonderFi?
Canada: A “testing ground” for crypto compliance in North America
Although the size of Canadas crypto market is not large, in recent years, with the gradual improvement and clarification of the Canadian governments regulatory policies on the cryptocurrency industry, it has created a good environment for the healthy development of the crypto market, provided a clear compliance path for cryptocurrency companies, and promoted market development and international investment attractiveness.
Robinhood has keenly captured this market opportunity. By acquiring WonderFi, it can quickly enter the Canadian crypto market. With its mature platform and user resources, it combines its own low-cost, safe and convenient trading platform advantages with WonderFi to meet the growing crypto trading needs of Canadians. In addition, in recent years, exchanges such as Coinbase have also focused on Canada.
Robinhood’s “Puzzle Logic”: Completing the North American Crypto Landscape
Robinhood is well-known in the United States for its unique zero-commission stock trading model. It has successfully broken the high threshold of traditional financial transactions, popularized investment, and accumulated a large user base. In recent years, with the continuous integration and innovation of the global financial market, especially the rapid development of the cryptocurrency market, Robinhood has actively built a global financial ecosystem, hoping to occupy more shares in the international market.
Robinhood acquired the crypto exchange Bitstamp for $200 million in mid-2024. Bitstamp has retail and institutional clients in the EU, UK, US and Asia, and has more than 50 valid licenses and registrations worldwide, and will bring Robinhood clients from the EU, UK, US and Asia. However, in North America, in addition to the United States, a strong platform is still needed to expand the market, and the emergence of WonderFi just meets this need.
Dean Skurka, president and CEO of WonderFi, said in an interview with BetaKit that Robinhood “seems very committed to crypto” and described the deal as “an amazing outcome” for WonderFi shareholders, users, and employees.
WonderFi: Full-chain layout from transactions to ecology and crypto education
Founded in 2018, WonderFi is focused on providing users with compliant and convenient cryptocurrency trading, payment and custody services. It has accumulated rich industry experience and a broad user base, and occupies an important position in Canadas rapidly growing crypto market. Its brand portfolio and regulatory compliance make it an ideal partner for Robinhood to enter Canada.
WonderFi operates two long-established regulated crypto platforms in Canada, Bitbuy and Coinsquare, and through a series of acquisitions, integrations and proprietary sectors, has built a diversified brand ecosystem covering trading (Bitbuy, Coinsquare, CoinSmart, Coinberry), payment (SmartPay), custody and education (Bitcoin.ca). WonderFis products and brands include:
WonderFi Labs: Established within WonderFi, it will initially focus on decentralized products and protocols, including the WonderFi Layer 2 blockchain (Wonder Chain) and WonderFis non-custodial wallet Wonder Wallet. Among them, Wonder Chain is a Layer 2 network based on zkSync, Wonder focuses on gas-free transactions, cross-chain interoperability, and EVM compatibility; Wonder Wallet aims to achieve seamless DeFi access, AI insights, and gas-free transactions on Wonder. Wonder Wallet supports multi-party computing (MPC) and mnemonic wallets, with built-in conversations, staking, and fiat currency entry to achieve self-custodial asset management.
Bitbuy: is a crypto trading platform founded in 2016 and acquired by WonderFi in 2022. Bitbuy is registered as a crypto asset market with the Ontario Securities Commission and the Canadian Securities Administrators, providing cryptocurrency trading, staking, enterprise cryptocurrency services, and over-the-counter trading services.
Coinsquare: is a crypto trading platform founded in 2014. In 2023, WonderFi merged with Coinsquare and CoinSmart. Coinsquares official website shows that it is the first cryptocurrency trading platform in Canada to be registered as a CIRO Investment trading broker and market member. The official website shows that Coinsquare has raised more than 100 million Canadian dollars in funds to date and has more than 500,000 users.
CoinSmart and SmartPay: CoinSmart is a crypto trading platform. In July 2023, WonderFi acquired SmartPay through the acquisition of CoinSmart as part of a three-way merger. SmartPay provides businesses with seamless, regulated, and efficient crypto payment solutions.
Coinberry: is a crypto trading platform founded in 2017 and acquired by Coinberry in July 2022 in an all-stock transaction (valued at approximately US$38.3 million).
Bitcoin.ca: Aims to provide accessible Bitcoin investor education and onboarding tools.
Blade Labs Solana Infrastructure: In January 2025, WonderFi acquired intellectual property related to Solana ecosystem tools and infrastructure from Blade Labs. WonderFi Labs will integrate these tools and drive Solanas on-chain growth.
In terms of finance, WonderFis first quarter financial report showed that it achieved $17.5 million in revenue and interest income in the first quarter of 2025, the third highest quarter in the companys history. Its wholly-owned trading platforms Bitbuy and Coinsquare had a trading volume of more than $1.128 billion in the quarter.
In WonderFis 2024 financial report, WonderFis Bitbuy, Coinsquare and SmartPay generated $62.1 million in total revenue and interest income in 2024, an increase of 108% compared to fiscal year 2023. WonderFis wholly-owned platform processed more than $3.57 billion in cryptocurrency trading volume in fiscal year 2024, an increase of 28% compared to fiscal year 2023. As of December 31, 2024, Bitbuy and Coinsquare had more than $2.1 billion in customer assets under custody, an increase of 109% compared to the end of fiscal year 2023.
What are the impacts?
From the perspective of business expansion, this acquisition will greatly enrich Robinhoods product line and service scope. The crypto trading, staking, custody and other services provided by WonderFis platform are highly consistent with Robinhood Cryptos existing business. After the integration of the two parties, they can form a stronger synergy effect, provide users with one-stop, all-round crypto financial services, and further enhance the user experience.
In terms of market share, Robinhood was able to officially enter the Canadian crypto retail trading market and rapidly expand its customer base in Canada through WonderFis existing extensive user network.
For WonderFi, joining the Robinhood family means more abundant financial support, more extensive technical resources, and greater room for development. After the acquisition, its team will be able to leverage Robinhoods global resources and operational experience to accelerate product innovation and upgrades, provide better services to Canadian customers, and achieve leapfrog development of its business. At the same time, WonderFis shareholders also received an attractive cash premium through this transaction, realizing asset appreciation and exit.
In the long run, Robinhoods acquisition of WonderFi will help promote the Canadian crypto market to a more mature, standardized and diversified direction, provide investors with more high-quality options, and enhance the global influence of the Canadian crypto market. In addition, Robinhood may also use Canada as a springboard to radiate the Latin American or Asian markets in the future, echoing its vision of a global financial ecosystem.
refer to:
https://newsroom.aboutrobinhood.com/robinhood-to-acquire-wonderfi/
https://newsroom.aboutrobinhood.com/robinhood-to-acquire-bitstamp/
