WonderFi to Acquire Toronto-Based Crypto Marketplace Bitbuy

WonderFi Technologies Inc, which is a DeFi platform backed by investor Kevin O’Leary, is set to buy Bitbuy’s parent company First Ledger Corp for around C$206 million ($162.13 million).

With the purchase, WonderFi will get full ownership of the Toronto-based Canadian crypto marketplace. 

The deal involves the WonderFi platform paying with 70 million new shares and C$50 million ($39 million) in cash. C$20 million will be paid upfront and C$30 million in deferred cash. 

WonderFi will gain access to Bitbuy’s 375,000+ users. 

Over $4.4 billion has already been transacted through the Bitbuy market place since 2016, and the company has generated more than $31 million in revenue last year.

Ben Samaroo is Chief Executive Officer of WonderFi.

“The integration of WonderFi and Bitbuy is a huge step forward in our mission of democratizing finance through easy and secure access to DeFi and crypto,” Samaroo said in a press release. 

“We’re looking for integration opportunities there where we can leverage some of the stuff on the DeFi side for Bitbuy, but that’s obviously subject to working with the regulators on their existing license,” Samaroo continued. “What we’re really working towards is being able to offer end-to-end, everything under the sun to our users and people within the WonderFI ecosystem.” 

The press release also indicated that the acquisition is expected to close during the first quarter of 2022. 

“This is a great opportunity to really accelerate the growth of both business within Canada and internationally,” Samaroo said. 

Kevin O’Leary has said that he expects enhanced regulation in the coming years, which will fuel the growth in the crypto space. This will in-turn create an environment for new types of products.

“That’s what the WonderFi app is going to provide,” O’Leary said in a statement to the Financial Post. “We can provide product and service for a really large segment of the market, whether it be the consumer or the institutional trader that wants to be very liquid and very transparent.” 

WonderFi enables users to invest and exchange in DeFi assets, track DeFi indexes, and earn interest through lending digital assets.