WonderFi Founder Says Canadian Crypto Rules Pushed Company Toward Robinhood

WonderFi founder Karia Samaroo says Canada’s capital markets and crypto regulatory structure made the company’s C$250 million sale to Robinhood (NASDAQ: $HOOD) the clearest path to global scale, arguing that domestic success had become a ceiling rather than a launchpad.

Robinhood completed the acquisition on June 1, paying C$0.36 per WonderFi share, or roughly US$180 million in equity value. The deal gave Robinhood an established Canadian crypto operation and an investment dealer license, providing a regulated entry point into the market.

WonderFi brought about 300,000 funded customers, roughly US$800 million in crypto assets under custody and US$2.6 billion in trailing 12-month trading volume as of April. Its platforms include Bitbuy and Coinsquare, which are being migrated to Robinhood’s Canadian crypto platform in phases.

Samaroo, who founded WonderFi in 2021, said the company had consolidated a fragmented domestic crypto market and survived both the FTX collapse and a sweeping regulatory overhaul. But scaling beyond Canada proved harder.

“Canada has created a ceiling for growth for ambitious companies,” Samaroo wrote, pointing to thinner growth capital, weaker business investment, fragmented securities regulation and a less competitive environment for risk-taking.

Crypto firms face another layer of friction. Samaroo said Canada’s post-Quadriga rules created one of the world’s most demanding digital asset regimes, while provincial securities oversight added cost and complexity. He cited Binance, OKX, Bybit and Gemini (NASDAQ: $GEMI) among global exchanges that entered Canada before later exiting.

The sale gives Robinhood a shortcut into a market where building a compliant crypto platform from scratch carries a heavier regulatory burden. For WonderFi, it shifts the company from an independent Canadian consolidator into part of a larger U.S. financial platform with international ambitions.

Samaroo’s argument leaves the deal carrying a broader question for Canada: whether successful fintechs can find enough capital and regulatory room to keep scaling independently once they outgrow the domestic market.

Robinhood Markets Inc. (NASDAQ: HOOD) stock is currently trading at $94.31 U.S. per share.