Coinsquare Ltd. and WonderFi Technologies Inc. are in advanced merger talks to create the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Canada with an announcement possible in just days, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The potential deal comes a few days after Coinsmart Financial Inc. said that Coinsquare is walking away from a previously agreed-upon decision to acquire the company. Coinsmart said in a release on Monday that the company's management and board of directors are"evaluating the validity and effectiveness" of Coinsquare's decision to terminate its merger. If a deal is announced, the combined exchange operators would have a combined user base of about 1.15 million.
A deal between Coinsquare and WonderFi would also come at a pivotal point in the cryptocurrency industry. The sector has been reeling since the collapse of Bahamas-based FTX Trading Ltd. - once valued at US$32 billion - and which filed for bankruptcy in November and its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried faces eight counts of fraud, money laundering and other financial crimes.
“We look like any other investment dealer in Canada,” Coinsquare CEO Martin Piszel told BNN Bloomberg in a television interview in November. “We have the same rules, restrictions, guidelines … I think that’s good for the industry. And I think that’s really good for consumers.”