Canada’s antitrust watchdog is looking at the cryptocurrency world, too
Lynn Johannson, Advisor, Sustainability and ESG
January 4th, 2024
Lynn Johannson, President of E2 Management Corporation and Catalyst for THE Collaboration
In a care[...]
Competition Bureau Reacts to Wonderfi’s Crypto Consolidation
FP | | Jul 28, 2022
Canada’s antitrust watchdog is looking at the cryptocurrency world, too
— a sign of both the increasing relevancy of that space and of the more active posture of the bureau under new leadership.
- In March, WonderFi Technologies Inc., a Vancouver-based crypto outfit backed by Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary, closed on its $206 million acquisition of the exchange Bitbuy. Just a month later, WonderFI announced that it had entered into an agreement to buy Coinberry, another trading platform, in a $38.5 million deal.
- So, the Competition Bureau came knocking.
- The watchdog chose not to oppose the Coinberry acquisition, which closed in July, but according to WonderFi spokesman Binu Koshy, it was the first time the bureau had reviewed a crypto deal.
“WonderFi was also notified that every future acquisition would require such a review,” Koshy said in an email.
See: Opinion: Rising cost of compliance may lead to consolidation
A Competition Bureau spokeswoman, Camilla Corrigan, said in a statement that the watchdog must be given notice for deals above a certain size: $92 million for companies being bought or $400 million for the parties combined, either in terms of valuation or the firms’ domestic revenue.
WonderFi, however, suggested that the Competition Bureau should focus its energy elsewhere. It pointed a finger at competitors — yet another merger in the world of Canadian crypto exchanges, with the Bahamas-based FTX announcing in June it would buy Calgary’s Bitvo for an undisclosed sum.
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