WonderFi Technologies, a technology company providing access to financial services through decentralized finance, has completed its acquisition of First Ledger Corp (FLC), the parent company of Bitbuy Technologies, the first approved crypto marketplace in Canada.
Bitbuy, which offers crypto trading services to beginners, advanced traders and corporations, was founded in 2016 and is currently one of Canada's largest cryptocurrency platforms by trading volume.
As a result of the acquisition, Bitbuy has over 400,000 registered users are now a part of the growing WonderFi ecosystem, bringing over $455 million of assets under custody as of December 31, 2021.
Bitbuy had recently emerged as Canada's first crypto trading platform to become regulated as a marketplace in addition to being registered as a restricted dealer in the country.
The combined company, with over 120 staff, will be exclusively focused on introducing new features, offerings and functionality and creating Canada's largest talent pool of crypto tech professionals, WonderFi said in its announcement of the completion of the deal.
Speaking about the completion of the acquisition, which was first announced in January, Ben Samaroo, the Chief Executive Officer of WonderFi, described the takeover as a “huge step forward in our mission of democratizing finance through easy and secure access to DeFi and crypto.”
"A licensed marketplace serves as a crucial gateway to the digital asset economy, and facilitates a robust end-to-end, unified client experience,” Samaroo added.
Michael Arbus, the CEO of Bitbuy, said the integration of both companies will help to strengthen Bitbuy’s competitive hedge. "The combination of Bitbuy, Canada's largest approved crypto trading marketplace, and WonderFi's decentralized product line-up creates an innovative experience for our Clients, and a globally competitive platform, positioned to enter new markets,” Arbus said.
On his part, Kevin O’Leary, a renowned investor, ambassador and strategic advisor to WonderFi, said the acquisition means the integrated company can now provide an institutional-grade compliant crypto platform to investors interested in exposure to centralized and decentralized financial services.
What Does This Acquisition Mean?
According to the announcement, all of FLC’s issued and outstanding shares now belong to WonderFi.
WonderFi further explained: “The consideration paid to former shareholders of FLC consisted of 70 million newly issued common shares of WonderFi, most of which were subject to certain lock-up requirements, $20 million in upfront cash and $30 million in deferred cash via a vendor-take back note due in 12 months, which is subject to a working capital adjustment.”
“A portion of the deferred cash was included in the upfront cash payment pursuant to the terms of the definitive agreement with respect to the acquisition.”
Additionally, WonderFi said it will issue 450,000 common shares to both FLC Corp and O'Leary Productions Limited for strategic growth, merger and acquisition as well as capital market advisory services provided to it. It added that it will issue 100,000 common shares to Nancy Cheung for public relations and media advisory services, through the period ending July 31, 2022.
WonderFi's Recent Moves
In December last year, WonderFi announced that it agreed to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Crypto APIs, a leading firm that provides crypto and blockchain market data and tools used by a wide variety of market players, including enterprises, wallets and exchanges and institutional investors.
Samaroo had said the acquisition would help the company to "provide access to high-quality, comprehensive data in order to foster efficiency, transparency and growth in the sector, while directly integrating and supporting WonderFi's own products.”
