Three Canadian cryptocurrency companies announced a merger on Monday, creating Canada’s largest crypto asset trading platform with over 1.65 million registered users.
Fast facts
- See related story: Canada gives crypto companies 30 days to meet updated registration guidelines
- The newly merged company “will have transacted over $17 billion since 2017 and have over $600 million in assets under custody,” according to the press release.
- The deal will bring four of Canada’s 11 registered crypto trading platforms—CoinSmart, Coinsquare, and WonderFi-owned Bitbuy and Coinberry—under the same roof.
- The three companies are expected to be consolidated under Coinsquare, which became the first Canadian platform registered with the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization last October.
- “This combination will create a safe, secure, scalable, and regulated trading platform that can compete with the unregulated global exchanges still operating in Canada,” said Coinsquare CEO Martin Piszel.
- The merger confirms separate plans the three companies have been working on in recent months. In January, WonderFi and Coinsquare were in talks about a possible merger. This came after Coinsquare terminated a previous agreement to acquire CoinSmart last September.
- In Feb 2023, the Canadian Securities Administrators published a notice that required unregistered crypto companies planning to operate in Canada to undertake a pre-registration process within 30 days to initiate their full registration and comply with the guidelines.
- See related stories: Canada to examine risks from crypto, stablecoins, CBDCs in budget
