Canadian Crypto Exchanges Coinsquare, WonderFi in Advanced Talks to Merge: Bloomberg

Coinsquare Ltd. and WonderFi Technologies (WNDR) are in advanced talks to merge and become Canada’s largest crypto exchange, according to a report from Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.

An official announcement could come in the next few days, Bloomberg said.

Shares of the Kevin O’Leary-backed WonderFi were halted on the Toronto Stock Exchange following the release of the news on Thursday afternoon. WonderFi's shares closed up 29% to 31 cents.

The potential deal comes just days after Coinsquare terminated a previous agreement to acquire Coinsmart Financial, another crypto exchange based in Canada, according to Coinsmart.

The terms of the potential Coinsquare-WonderFi merger were not known, although one potential scenario involved Coinsquare shareholders taking a majority stake in the combined company, one of Bloomberg’s sources said.

Both WonderFi and Coinsquare said they had no comment on the merger report.

WonderFi said in November it had about 650,000 users and $258 million in assets under management, while the privately-held Coinsquare said it had about 500,000, according to Bloomberg.

In October, Coinsquare became the first crypto-native company to became a member of Canada’s top self-regulatory organization, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC).

UPDATE (Jan. 12, 20:04 UTC): Added no comment from WonderFi.

UPDATE (Jan. 12, 21:11 UTC): Added no comment from Coinsquare.

UPDATE (Jan 12, 21:45 UTC): Updates stock price.