CoinSmart is eyeing crypto acquisitions across US and Europe, CEO says

CoinSmart Financial Inc. (SMART.NE), a leading Canadian-based crypto asset trading platform, looks to take advantage of the crypto winter to snap up struggling crypto companies on the cheap.

The company, which is publicly-listed on the NEO exchange and also has a dual listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in Germany under the ticker IIR, is tracking potential crypto merge and acquisition deals across Canada, the United States and Europe, the firm’s CEO Justin Hartzman said.

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CoinSmart looking to benefit from crypto turmoil

Crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and crypto lenders Celsius and Voyager Digital have all hit turmoil amid broader contagion. Market observers say it could yet get worse with more companies being hit before the crypto winter is over.

Hartzman told Bloomberg in an interview that the Toronto-based crypto platform sees the current crypto market downturn as a great opportunity to seal a few investment deals. Currently, CoinSmart is looking at possible M&A across crypto sectors such as custody, trading and payments.

“M&A is an interesting thing, something that I spend a lot of time on,” the CoinSmart chief told Bloomberg. According to him, “the high cost of regulation” – or lack of it across some jurisdictions– has offered the company a great opportunity to size projects that could benefit CoinSmart’s expansion efforts.

CoinSmart Financial was founded in 2018 and is one of the leading gateways to cryptocurrencies in Canada. However, its services are also available in more than 40 countries, with over 250,000 registered users.

But the platform has yet to expand into the US and does not offer its services to American consumers, which Hartzman said is a reflection of the fragmented regulation or lack of it that is making it difficult for foreign companies to enter the market.

CoinSmart is regulated as a securities dealer in Canada, having received approval from the Ontario Securities Commission and going public in November 2021.