American trading platform Robinhood’s acquisition of Toronto-based cryptocurrency firm WonderFi stands to give the company a beachhead in the Canadian crypto market, and a jumping-off point from which it can bring its broader FinTech product suite into the country.
The $250-million CAD cash transaction is expected to close during the second half of 2025, pending approval by regulators, courts, and WonderFi shareholders.
Following the announcement early Tuesday morning, BetaKit sat down for interviews with WonderFi president and CEO Dean Skurka and Robinhood Crypto SVP Johann Kerbrat to discuss the deal and where crypto, WonderFi, and Canada fit into Robinhood’s overall strategy.
“We do expect to use this [acquisition] as a foundation to slowly expand around it.”
Skurka and WonderFi’s entire 115-person team are set to join Robinhood Crypto, where they will continue to oversee WonderFi’s existing products, including its regulated crypto exchanges Bitbuy and Coinsquare, and help build Robinhood’s presence in Canada.
“With a partner like Robinhood, there’s a really big opportunity to accelerate our growth plans and have a really big impact on this country over the coming years,” Skurka said.
Kerbrat described Canada as “a pretty attractive region” for Robinhood, which offers stock trading and other financial services and tools in the US and United Kingdom (UK) but not Canada, where the only product it currently provides is its self-custody crypto wallet.
Kerbrat said Robinhood was attracted to WonderFi given its ownership of two of Canada’s largest and oldest regulated crypto exchanges—Bitbuy and Coinsquare—and the latter’s status as a Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization member. “It shows that the brand has a lot of trust, a lot of history, and knows how to work in this market,” he said.
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When asked whether Robinhood has designs to roll out its broader suite of offerings in Canada, Kerbrat noted that currently “no plans are set,” but added that the company “will expect in the future to develop our offering” in the country.
A full rollout of Robinhood’s product suite in Canada would put it in direct competition with several home-grown offerings, including Wealthsimple. Wealthsimple launched its crypto offering in 2020, and has achieved over $73 billion CAD in assets under administration across its product offerings, serving more than three million Canadians. By way of comparison, Robinhood reported $187 billion USD in assets under custody in March.
“We do expect in the future that our entire product offering will be available everywhere in the world, and so we do expect to use this [acquisition] as a foundation to slowly expand around it,” Kerbrat said. For now, the plan is to focus on crypto in Canada, with Kerbrat describing the country as “primed for digital assets.”
The WonderFi deal comes as Robinhood has plotted a crypto expansion under US President Donald Trump, who ran on a promise to make the US “the crypto capital of the world” and spent his first months in power rewriting crypto rules. The company also contributed $2 million USD to the president’s inauguration earlier this year. Analysts at research firm Bernstein believe the company’s crypto push could double its share price.
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In February, the US Securities and Exchange Commission closed an investigation into Robinhood Crypto with no action. The issue under investigation was whether the crypto tokens traded on the platform fit the definition of securities and ought to be regulated as such.
WonderFi marks Robinhood’s second major crypto acquisition in the past year, after its purchase of Luxembourg-based crypto exchange Bitstamp in 2024 for $200 million USD in cash.
At the moment, Robinhood only offers crypto trading in the UK, but Kerbrat said the company views crypto as “a great way” for it to expand.
Robinhood established a Canadian headquarters in Toronto in 2024, which now houses a workforce of more than 140. To date, Robinhood’s Toronto office has served as an engineering hub developing infrastructure that underpins Robinhood’s overall platform and its crypto offerings. Kerbrat expects Robinhood to continue to expand its presence in Toronto, noting that the firm currently has multiple open roles in Canada but no specific hiring targets.
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For now, Kerbrat expects WonderFi to continue providing its existing products and services. He does not anticipate any changes for WonderFi customers or offerings over the short term, but said that over time, Robinhood intends to help improve the company’s products.
Kerbrat noted that it is “a bit too early” to say whether any product consolidation or brand changes would occur, noting that this is something the two companies will consider over the next few months, emphasizing that for now, their efforts are targeted towards getting this deal across the finish line.
Skurka does not anticipate any hiccups on the regulatory front, given WonderFi’s extensive experience navigating the acquisition process and the relationships it has built with regulators along the way.
Kerbrat said Canada has “a [crypto regulation] framework that you can work with.”
Kerbrat said Robinhood plans to continue working with Canadian regulators, and said the company views regulation as key to product adoption and consumer protection. He said Canada has “a framework that you can work with” when it comes to crypto regulation.
The Robinhood Crypto SVP sees room for Robinhood to not just explore bringing some of its other offerings to WonderFi, but learn from WonderFi as it looks to launch crypto products and services in the US and other markets around the world.
Skurka described Robinhood as a global leader in the FinTech space with a track record of building strong products.
“For that company to identify Canada as a market they want to invest in, and to do so through this acquisition, we think it’s an amazing opportunity for Canadians, and we think FinTech users across the country will benefit as this transaction closes and the integrations unfold,” he said.
Feature image courtesy Pexels. Photo by Andrew Neel.