WonderFi founder and former CEO Karia Samaroo said the company’s C$250 million acquisition by Robinhood Markets was not driven by a lack of growth potential, but by a Canadian market environment that limits how far local technology companies can scale.
Samaroo said WonderFi was founded in 2021. Over the following years, the company consolidated Canada’s fragmented crypto market, built a national brand, and survived the collapse of QuadrigaCX, the failure of FTX, and Canada’s strict crypto regulatory environment. By 2023, he said, WonderFi had become a leading crypto platform in the Canadian market.
Global ambitions ran beyond Canada
Samaroo said success in Canada was never meant to be the company’s final destination. WonderFi had wanted to grow into a global company, while Robinhood saw the firm as a strategic gateway into Canada, leading to the C$250 million deal.
Founder points to structural barriers in Canada
According to Samaroo, Canada has long had structural problems that restrict companies from scaling, including limited venture capital, weak public markets, fragmented regulation, and declining attractiveness of startup returns. He said those pressures are even more visible in crypto.
He said Canadian regulators built one of the stricter crypto oversight systems in the world after the QuadrigaCX episode. While the stated aim was investor protection, the rules also raised operating costs for companies. Binance, OKX, Bybit, and Gemini had all previously entered the Canadian market and later left, he said.
Samaroo added that Canada’s crypto rules are not only strict, but also layered on top of a fragmented securities regulatory system. In his view, that has increased financing costs, made operations more complex, and reduced interest from overseas investors.
He says WonderFi is not an isolated case
Samaroo said WonderFi is one example of a broader pattern in Canada, where technology companies grow domestically, hit a ceiling in the local market, and then turn to overseas capital or strategic buyers.
He also pointed to earlier criticism from Shopify founder Tobi Lütke, who said Canada repeatedly “grows important companies and then sends them abroad.” Samaroo said restricting corporate sales can become a political gesture, while the real issue is whether Canada can build a business environment that supports financing, expansion, and global competition.
Robinhood had previously announced the WonderFi acquisition at about C$250 million. The transaction also reflects faster consolidation across the North American crypto sector, with U.S. platforms using acquisitions to enter other markets, according to Fortune.