The Rise of Metaverse Fuels DeFi, Crypto, and Blockchain

Metaverse, a digital place where people work, play, and socialize, could soon be upon us with Facebook (now called Meta) leading the way. But like any breakthrough industry, there is rarely one party that rises to meet the future. One company, Wolf3D raised $1.3 million for Ready Player Me, a cross-game avatar platform for the Metaverse. At the same time, MetaLaunch (ASVA) gained $3.2 million in seed funding and private investment. And that’s not all. According to Crunchbase, many venture capitalists will spend billions more to make the metaverse the new reality. This new iteration of the internet could create enormous opportunities for DeFi companies like WonderFi Technologies (NEO:WNDR) (OTCPK:WONDF), DeFi Technologies Inc. (NEO:DEFI) (OTCPK:DEFTF), Voyager Digital (TSX:VOYG) (OTCQX:VYGVF), Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN), and Hive Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ:HVBT) (TSXV:HIVE), given that Metaverse tokens (MANA, GALA, etc.), the new digital currencies will be mainly transacted by DeFi infrastructure.

DeFi technology company WonderFi Technologies (NEO:WNDR) (OTC:WONDF) just made a huge step toward democratizing finance through easy and secure access to DeFi and crypto after signing a definitive agreement to acquire First Ledger Corp., the parent company of Bitbuy, Canada’s first approved crypto marketplace with over $4.4 billion transacted.

Founded in 2016, Bitbuy is a leading cryptocurrency platform founded in 2016 that has had over 350,000 users, more than $4.4 billion in transactions on the platform, and a revenue of more than $32.0 million in the year ended September 30, 2021. The platform became the first approved crypto marketplace in Canada in November 2021. The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 program ranked the platform 9^th.

This acquisition brings WonderFi closer to its goal of democratizing decentralized finance by providing easy and secure access to DeFi and crypto. This acquisition also brings new revenue streams to WonderFi as an approved crypto marketplace and an OTC trading platform for retail and institutional clients.

Through the acquisition, WonderFi will also gain Bitbuy’s users and more than $440 million assets from Bitbuy, in addition to owning the license and operating rights of Canada’s first crypto marketplace. Current Bitbuy users will have access to the WonderFi ecosystem and functionalities as well.

WonderFi will also expand its team by retaining Bitbuy’s employees upon closing the acquisition, which is expected sometime in Q1 2022.

Speaking of the partnership, investor and strategic advisor to WonderFi, Kevin O’Leary said,

"This is a combination of two management teams with excellent executional skills that now have the bandwidth, assets, and licenses to provide an institutional-grade compliant crypto platform to investors interested in exposure to centralized and decentralized financial services."

In addition, WonderFi Technologies (NEO:WNDR) (OTC:WONDF) announced on November 24, 2021 the listing of tokenized shares on FTX, a leading global cryptocurrency exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, a well-respected entrepreneur named on the Forbes 30 Under 30. This is crucial because not only does FTX listing provide global access to WonderFi’s stock, it also provides FTX’s millions of users with the opportunity to invest in WonderFi through BTC, ETH, and other cryptocurrencies without a bank account.