Original author: KarenZ, Foresight News
In mid-May, the zero-commission trading platform Robinhood announced an all-cash acquisition of Canadian digital asset service provider WonderFi for 250 million Canadian dollars (approximately 179 million USD). Following its acquisition of Bitstamp exchange for 200 million USD in 2024, this is another significant move by Robinhood in the crypto space, marking an acceleration of its global crypto deployment.
Key Acquisition Details
According to the agreement, Robinhood will acquire all issued and outstanding common shares of WonderFi at a price of 0.36 Canadian dollars per share. The all-cash acquisition price represents a premium of approximately 41% compared to WonderFi's closing price on the Toronto Stock Exchange on May 12 (the last trading day before the announcement), and about 71% premium to its 30-day volume-weighted average price (VWAP).
This fully demonstrates Robinhood's emphasis and determination for this acquisition. In terms of overall equity value, considering fully diluted and all in-the-money options, the total transaction value is approximately 250 million Canadian dollars.
The acquisition is expected to be completed in the second half of 2025, subject to a series of standard closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, court approval, and WonderFi shareholders' consent.
Once the acquisition is successfully completed, WonderFi will be officially integrated into Robinhood Crypto, continuing to provide crypto products and services to Canadian customers. The WonderFi leadership team will also become part of Robinhood Crypto, helping 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, with over 140 employees in Canada. After acquiring WonderFi, the WonderFi leadership and 115-person team will join the Robinhood Crypto Canadian team, enhancing Robinhood's local operational capabilities in Canada. WonderFi is expected to be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange after the transaction is completed.
Why Canada? Why WonderFi?
Canada: A "Testing Ground" for North American Crypto Compliance
Although the Canadian crypto market is not large, in recent years, the Canadian government has gradually improved and clarified crypto industry regulatory policies, creating a good environment for healthy market development and providing clear compliance paths for crypto companies, promoting market development and international investment attractiveness.
Robinhood keenly captured this market opportunity. By acquiring WonderFi, it can quickly enter the Canadian crypto market, leveraging its mature platform and user resources. By combining its low-cost, secure, and convenient trading platform advantages with WonderFi, it can meet the growing crypto trading needs of Canadian citizens. Additionally, in recent years, exchanges like Coinbase have also focused on Canada.
Robinhood's "Puzzle Logic": Completing the North American Crypto Map
Robinhood is known in the US for its unique zero-commission stock trading model, successfully breaking down traditional financial trading barriers and democratizing investment, accumulating a massive user base. In recent years, with the continuous integration and innovation of global financial markets, especially the rapid development of the crypto market, Robinhood has actively built a global financial ecosystem, hoping to occupy more market share internationally.
In mid-2024, Robinhood acquired the crypto exchange Bitstamp for 200 million USD. Bitstamp's retail and institutional clients span the EU, UK, US, and Asia, with over 50 valid licenses and registrations globally, bringing customers from the EU, UK, US, and Asia. However, in the North American region, besides the US mainland, it still needed a strong platform to expand its market. WonderFi's emergence perfectly met this need.
WonderFi President and CEO Dean Skurka, in an interview with BetaKit, stated that Robinhood "seems very committed to cryptocurrencies" and described the transaction as "an amazing outcome" for WonderFi shareholders, users, and employees.
(Translation continues in the next response due to character limit)For WonderFi, joining the Robinhood family means obtaining more substantial funding support, broader technological resources, and a wider development space. After this acquisition, its team can leverage Robinhood's global resources and operational experience to accelerate product innovation and upgrades, provide better services for Canadian customers, and achieve breakthrough business development. Meanwhile, WonderFi's shareholders have also gained an attractive cash premium through this transaction, realizing asset appreciation and exit.
In the long term, Robinhood's acquisition of WonderFi is conducive to promoting the Canadian crypto market towards a more mature, regulated, and diversified direction, providing investors with more quality choices and enhancing the global influence of the Canadian crypto market. Additionally, Robinhood may use Canada as a springboard to potentially radiate into Latin American or Asian markets, echoing its "global financial ecosystem" vision.
References:
https://newsroom.aboutrobinhood.com/robinhood-to-acquire-wonderfi/
https://newsroom.aboutrobinhood.com/robinhood-to-acquire-bitstamp/
