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08/12/2024

WonderFi Expands into Australia — Blockchain Futurist Conference

Crypto company WonderFi merged with Coinsmart and Coinsquare in 2023 and reached $1 billion in assets under management that same year. Dean Skurka, President and CEO of WonderFi, along with Tim Lo, the company's Head of Australian and Asia-Pacific (APAC) Markets, joined Cointelegraph at this year's Blockchain Futurist Conference in Canada to discuss the company's recent expansion into Australia and the future of the crypto industry. Skurka explained that the expansion into Australia

WonderFi Expands into Australia — Blockchain Futurist Conference

Crypto company WonderFi merged with Coinsmart and Coinsquare in 2023 and reached $1 billion in assets under management that same year.

Dean Skurka, President and CEO of WonderFi, along with Tim Lo, the company's Head of Australian and Asia-Pacific (APAC) Markets, joined Cointelegraph at this year's Blockchain Futurist Conference in Canada to discuss the company's recent expansion into Australia and the future of the crypto industry.

Skurka explained that the expansion into Australia marks the company's first step in global expansion. According to the CEO, WonderFi chose Australia due to demographic and regulatory similarities with Canada. The comparable licensing requirements made the expansion into Australia "smooth," Skurka said. The CEO emphasized the company's long-term approach to serving markets:

"We're pursuing a 'regulation-first' mindset for the markets we enter. We, as a public company, want to invest in markets where we're confident we can serve customers over the long term."

The WonderFi CEO went on to say that crypto adoption is on the rise, expressing optimism that more consumers are growing comfortable transacting on-chain and predicting the development of more intuitive user interfaces across crypto applications.

Related: Canada Needs Crypto Regulatory Reform — Coinbase CEO

It's Still Early Days for Crypto

Tim Lo, WonderFi's Head of APAC Markets, expressed his belief that the crypto industry and its markets are still in the early stages, predicting that large institutional investors will allocate a significant portion of their portfolios to digital assets as the industry matures.

"Sooner or later, we'll see more pension funds, more sovereign wealth funds start to make real allocations into crypto. I think that's when the market will mature, but we're a long way from getting there."

Lo noted that while crypto markets are currently still down 33% from previous all-time highs, the market will ultimately reach new highs, driven by the launch of crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States and institutional investor demand for these products.

Retail Investor Interest in Crypto Markets Expected to Rise

Earlier in June, Skurka had argued that the Bank of Canada's interest rate cuts and the launch of crypto ETFs in the U.S. were drawing retail investors into the digital asset market.

However, the CEO noted these are still early signals and that retail investors won't enter the market immediately — it will take anywhere from six to twelve months.