Trading brokerage Robinhood will soon be available to the growing pool of self-directed Canadian investors.Dado Ruvic/Reuters
U.S. brokerage Robinhood Markets Inc. is bringing its popular trading app to Canadians after completing its acquisition of cryptocurrency company WonderFi Technologies Inc., a move that ramps up competition with fintechs for the country’s growing pool of self-directed investors.
The $250-million deal closed on Monday, more than a year after the two companies announced their plans. On May 20, the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization approved the purchase of Toronto-based WonderFi, in which Robinhood is paying 36 cents per WonderFi share.
“Our goal is to become one of the top players in the space,” Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood’s senior vice-president and general manager of crypto, said in an interview with The Globe and Mail. “We know that Canadians are actually excited about getting more and more into their finances.”
The acquisition marks the latest battle in the race for Canada’s expanding number of self-directed investors. As more Canadians, particularly younger investors, turn to mobile apps to trade stocks, ETFs and cryptocurrencies, competition has intensified among fintech companies looking to become their primary financial app.
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For Robinhood, the acquisition provides a shortcut into Canada and creates a new challenger to homegrown firms such as Wealthsimple Inc. and Questrade.
WonderFi owns two of Canada’s largest regulated cryptocurrency trading platforms, Bitbuy and Coinsquare, and has about $2-billion in client assets under custody. Both brands will become part of Robinhood, and existing customers will be invited over the coming weeks to begin trading directly through the Robinhood app.
Shares for WonderFi are expected to be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange on or about the close of trading on Tuesday, WonderFi said in a release.
At launch, Canadian users will have access to crypto offerings and roughly 50 assets. Soon after, Robinhood will add staking services, a feature that allows users to earn additional crypto by committing their existing holdings.
Robinhood’s trading fees will be 0.5 per cent on Canadian-dollar crypto trades. In comparison, Wealthsimple’s fee is 2 per cent for its clients with less than $100,000 in assets investing under $1,000.
Mr. Kerbrat declined to discuss specific plans to expand Robinhood’s product lineup in Canada but said the company’s long-term ambition is to “bring the entire Robinhood” to customers here.
The acquisition gives Robinhood approximately 300,000 Canadian customers, and WonderFi’s work force will join the more than 240 employees Robinhood already has in Canada. The company established its Canadian headquarters in Toronto in 2024, and many of its employees are graduates of Canadian schools, such as the University of Waterloo and University of Toronto, Mr. Kerbrat said.
Robinhood is one of the most recognizable names in retail investing, in large part because of the Gamestop meme-stock frenzy of 2021, when millions of users flocked to the platform and boosted shares of the video-game retailer.
The company offers ordinary financial products, such as retirement accounts, but much of its revenue comes from its higher-risk products, namely cryptocurrencies and prediction markets.
In April, Robinhood reported a 3-per-cent increase in quarterly profit, propped up by fees on prediction-market trades, where users place “yes” or “no” wagers on real-world events, such as sports, politics or weather. The number of prediction-market trades, known as event contracts, placed with the company reached a record 8.8 billion in the first three months of 2026.
Robinhood was attracted to WonderFi because of its regulatory standing and established brands, Mr. Kerbrat said.
“We want to make sure that the products and the companies that we acquire are in good standing with regulators, so that we can have a strong foundation to actually build on top of,” he said.
WonderFi’s roots trace back to 2018, when executive chair Bobby Halpern acquired cryptocurrency platform Bitbuy for $330,000. At the time, the company had roughly 500 customers and operated from a small Toronto office.
The business grew rapidly during the cryptocurrency boom.
In 2022, WonderFi, backed by investor and television personality Kevin O’Leary, acquired Bitbuy’s parent company for $206-million in cash and stock. A year later, WonderFi merged with CoinSmart Financial Inc. and Coinsquare Ltd. in an effort to gain scale and compete with larger global cryptocurrency exchanges.
The Robinhood acquisition was originally expected to close in the second half of 2025. However, WonderFi said late last year that it would be pushed into the first half of 2026 while the company sought regulatory approvals.
The deal was delayed amid a difficult period for the company. WonderFi has reported large losses in recent years, while one of its largest shareholders, Vancouver-based Orion Digital Corp., sold half of its shares at a loss in August, 2025, before exiting its position entirely earlier this year.