Robinhood Acquires WonderFi for $179 Million, Boosts Canadian Crypto Presence by 41%

Robinhood and Coinbase, two of the largest US fintech players, are making significant strides into Canada’s crypto landscape as part of their broader international expansion efforts. Robinhood has announced its $179 million acquisition of WonderFi, a company that owns two of Canada’s leading regulated crypto platforms, Bitbuy and Coinsquare. This move is set to close in the second half of 2025 and will bring WonderFi’s full suite of digital asset platforms under Robinhood’s umbrella, significantly bolstering its presence in the Canadian market.

Meanwhile, Coinbase is investing in Canadian stablecoin issuer Stablecorp to promote the adoption of QCAD, a tokenized version of the Canadian dollar. The partnership, revealed during the Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto, includes an undisclosed investment by Coinbase and a joint marketing campaign to boost adoption of QCAD. Lucas Matheson, CEO of Coinbase Canada, emphasized the urgency of stablecoins for Canadian users, citing the country’s outdated payment infrastructure. He highlighted how wire transfers in Canada cost $45 and take 45 minutes of paperwork, making stablecoins a more efficient alternative.

Stablecorp’s QCAD is one of the first fiat-backed stablecoins denominated in Canadian dollars, backed 1:1 with Canadian fiat reserves. However, as of July 2024, only around $175,000 worth of QCAD were in circulation, underscoring the slow pace of local adoption. Coinbase has urged the Canadian government to develop a national strategy for digital assets, emphasizing that stablecoins need to be treated as payment instruments rather than securities. This regulatory clarity is seen as crucial for the widespread adoption of stablecoins in Canada.

The push for QCAD adoption is part of a larger trend where financial institutions are embracing blockchain technology to enable faster, cheaper, and more accessible financial transactions. The involvement of a global giant like Coinbase may lend the project the credibility and scale it needs to break through to mainstream use. For Coinbase, the partnership with Stablecorp is not just about pushing a new stablecoin; it’s about laying the foundation for a more inclusive, cost-effective, and modern financial system in Canada.

Robinhood’s acquisition of WonderFi is another significant move in the Canadian crypto industry. WonderFi, a publicly traded company on the Toronto Stock Exchange, has spent the past several years consolidating Canada’s fragmented crypto market. The acquisition offer of 0.36 CAD per share represents a 41% premium over WonderFi’s last closing price and a 71% premium over its 30-day volume-weighted average. The deal, subject to shareholder, regulatory, and court approvals, could mark a significant reshaping of the Canadian crypto industry, with Robinhood set to inherit a key foothold in a region that has yet to fully embrace retail digital asset adoption at scale.

Robinhood’s move comes amid a broader surge in cryptocurrency mergers and acquisitions, fueled by improved regulatory clarity. Companies are seizing the opportunity to scale globally, attract new users, and expand into strategic markets. In just the first half of 2025, the crypto industry has seen several landmark acquisitions, including Coinbase’s acquisition of crypto derivatives exchange Deribit for $2.9 billion and Ripple’s purchase of prime brokerage platform Hidden Road for $1.25 billion.

While Canada has developed a more structured regulatory environment for crypto firms than many jurisdictions, it remains a cautious market. WonderFi’s operations under Canadian regulators will offer Robinhood a streamlined entry point into the country’s crypto space with compliant infrastructure already in place. The acquisition will likely accelerate Robinhood’s capacity to offer more crypto services to Canadians, possibly including access to its broader trading ecosystem, which merges traditional equities and digital assets under one platform.