By Ketki Saxena
Investing.com – Wonderfi Technologies Inc (TSX:WNDR) Technologies, CoinSmart Financial Inc (NLB:SMRT). and Coinsquare have announced a three way merger agreement, to create what will now be Canada’s largest cryptocurrency trading platform.
The deal will result in nearly $600 million in combined assets under custody, and a customer base of roughly 1.65 million Canadians.
The deal is expected to be finalized by the end of the second quarter of 2023, pending regulatory, court and shareholder approvals.
Following the closing of the transaction, Coinsquare shareholders will own 43% of the combined company, WonderFi will own 38%, and CoinSmart will own 19% on a partially diluted basis.
All three companies are registered with regulators to operate in all 13 of Canada’s provinces and territories. Coinsquare, however, is the only Canadian crypto exchange to be registered as a dealer and marketplace member by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC).
Accordingly, the new company will be consolidated under Coinsquare’s investment dealer registration with the New Self-Regulatory Organization of Canada.
The move is designed to help the Canadian companies compete with global behemoths, at a time of bankruptcies, mergers, and consolidation within the crypto sector (the most spectacular of these, of course, was the collapse of FTX and ensuing fallout).