Toronto crypto firm WonderFi, which rose to prominence as a serial buyer of regulated Canadian crypto platforms, will itself be acquired. Robinhood, the U.S. company known for its popular stocks-and-crypto trading platform, has agreed to buy it for about $250 million in cash.

WonderFi cashes out: Nasdaq-listed Robinhood is buying WonderFi for about 41 per cent more than the price at which the company’s stock closed on the TSX Monday. Sebastien Davies, market strategist at AQN Digital, an investment firm that specializes in digital assets, said that is a “pretty big multiple.” 

Davies said mergers and acquisitions are heating up in the crypto sector amid a friendly regulatory regime in the U.S. under President Donald Trump. WonderFi has about $2 billion in assets under management, about the same as American crypto giant Kraken’s Canadian business. Firms with large existing user bases are attractive targets for companies like Robinhood looking to expand into new markets, Davies said. 

Robinhood comes to Canada: .Robinhood doesn’t currently offer any products in Canada, but does have an office in Toronto—an infrastructure engineering hub—which WonderFi’s staff will join.

In an interview, WonderFi CEO Dean Skurka said Robinhood was attracted by Canada’s high crypto adoption rates and stable regulations. “As they look to continue to build out their footprint globally for crypto products, Canada makes a lot of sense,” he said. For now, WonderFi’s platforms Bitbuy and Coinsquare will continue to operate as usual. The firm will make decisions about whether to keep those brands long term after the deal closes in the second half of 2025, Skurka said. Davies said Robinhood’s platform is “famously awesome for user experience,” which could give WonderFi’s offerings a boost.

Competition heats up: Under Robinhood’s ownership, WonderFi’s main homegrown competitor will be Wealthsimple. The fintech was the first company to get Canadian regulators’ blessing to offer crypto trading and is the second most popular crypto platform in the country, behind Coinbase. Like Robinhood, Wealthsimple offers an app that lets retail investors trade stocks and crypto, as well as offering wealth management and other services. Robinhood was not available for comment and Skurka said he was unable to comment on whether the firm intends to roll out stock trading and other products that would compete with Wealthsimple.

Compliance focus pays off: WonderFi has always been a colourful company. Big names that have been associated with the firm include former Dragon’s Den stars Kevin O’Leary and Michael Wekerle and disgraced former Ashley Madison CEO Noel Biderman. Clashes among the firm’s large personalities led to a high-profile boardroom brawl last year over its lagging share price. WonderFi’s stock lost 92 per cent of its value between its peak in November 2021 and the close of trading Monday, buffeted by trading volumes that struggled to recover from the crash of crypto-trading giant FTX in 2022, competition from international competitors and the challenges of operating within the bounds of Canadian regulations.

However, the firm has aimed to be Canada’s safe, blue-chip choice for mainstream crypto investors. Robinhood will acquire the regulatory licences WonderFi’s platforms have worked to earn over the course of many years, giving it a major assist in entering the Canadian market. “The work that WonderFi has done is underappreciated in consolidating all the different exchanges,” said Kevin Dede, an analyst at New York City investment bank H.C. Wainwright who covers the company. “It gives Robinhood a really strong platform to grow on.”