Robinhood’s Purchase of WonderFi OK’d by Canadian Regulators

Canadian regulators have approved Robinhood’s bid to acquire digital asset products and services company WonderFi .

The Toronto-based WonderFi announced Monday (May 25) that the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) had approved the deal, which Robinhood has said will help deepen its capacity to offer programmable finance products.

“Canada is home to one of the fastest-growing crypto markets, and Robinhood’s accessible, low-cost and secure platform will build upon WonderFi’s mission and bring millions of Canadians greater access to crypto trading,” Robinhood said at the time.

“WonderFi’s technologies and products, including Bitbuy and Coinsquare, are highly aligned with Robinhood Crypto, with offerings including crypto trading, staking and custody.”

The deal had been expected to close in the latter half of last year, but the companies later extended the closing date to June 1 of this year, to give Robinhood more time to deploy its proprietary technology in Canada, and to receive regulatory approval.

The deal follows, and is intertwined with, Robinhood’s 2025 acquisition of the crypto exchange Bitstamp , as PYMNTS wrote last year.

“Internally, Robinhood has begun to lay down institutional-grade infrastructure, including custody solutions, anti-money laundering and know-your-customer processes, and advanced trading engines,” that report said.

“With Bitstamp’s regulatory muscle and WonderFi’s technology stack, Robinhood appears poised to rival firms like Coinbase or Galaxy in the lucrative middle ground between traditional finance and crypto-native platforms.”

Since then, crypto trading — Robinhood’s historic “growth engine” — has begun to sputter, PYMNTS wrote last month, as the company’s latest earnings show crypto trading revenue dropped by around 47% year over year .

In its place, two newer revenue streams have emerged, that report said: subscription services and prediction markets .

“In Q1, customers remained engaged and rapidly adopted new products, leading to a 20 percent-plus annualized net deposit growth rate, double-digit growth across equities and options, and record volumes for prediction markets, futures and index options,” Shiv Verma, CFO of Robinhood, said during an investor call.

This shift, PYMNTS argued, marked a “profound evolution of the platform,” with Robinhood transitioning from a brokerage to “a hybrid platform where investing, speculation and entertainment can increasingly blur.”

In other Robinhood news, the company announced earlier this month the launch of a venture fund that will raise money to invest in early-stage and growth-stage private companies.

The Robinhood Ventures Fund II (RVII) has confidentially submitted a draft registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to begin the process to register a public offering of its shares. The company expects the initial public offering to happen after the SEC concludes its review process, subject to market and other conditions.