"You should also own the infrastructure" - Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary chimes in on his investment in WonderFi

Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary uploaded a video on Instagram on May 15, 2025, in which he shared his opinions on Robinhood's acquisition of Canadian crypto firm WonderFi.

The clip was taken from his recent TV interview with NYSE TV, in which Kevin called this deal "inevitable," pointing out how the regulators continue to define the crypto industry and that scale matters.

In the caption of the post, the Shark Tank star shared that after gaining experience in the world of investing, he learned that an individual not just needs to own the tokens, Bitcoin, and Ethereum, but also needs to own the infrastructure. With that mentality, O’Leary noted that he became one of the early shareholders in WonderFi as it allowed him to look over all of his exchanges.

"I've had a premise in terms of investing in crypto for quite a few years now, that not only do you want to own the tokens, Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc, but you should also own the infrastructure. So I'm a shareholder in all the exchanges. I was one of the early shareholders in WonderFi," he wrote in the caption of the post.

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Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary explains the importance of the Robinhood-WonderFi deal

In the interview clip uploaded by Kevin O’Leary, the host discussed Robinhood’s $179 million acquisition of WonderFi and asked the Shark Tank star for his thoughts on the deal.

The veteran emphasizing that as regulators continue to shape the crypto industry, scale becomes increasingly important.

Drawing from his experience investing in multiple exchanges, he stressed the importance of owning the underlying infrastructure. O’Leary revealed that he became one of WonderFi’s early shareholders in 2021 and praised the company for becoming largest crypto exchange in Canada.

Regarding the acquisition, he commended Robinhood for recognizing the asset's value and making a strategic move to acquire it.

"I was one of the early shareholders of WonderFi, who kind of ripped off Richard Branson with that Wonder thing. Because a virgin I do wonder and worked for. It was the largest exchange in Canada, highly regulated by the OSB, successfully, I might add. And I think Vlad and the whole team at Robinhood saw the value of this asset and purchased it," he said.

The Shark Tank investor further expressed his excitement about the deal and the issues it would solve.

O’Leary noted that one of the major issues that people faced was having different platforms to hold their cryptocurrencies, in comparison to other assets like stocks and bonds, which just need a single platform to maintain.

With the Robinhood-WonderFi deal, the investor said people could just have one account under the firm where they could hold all of their assets, including cryptocurrencies, ETFs, bonds, and shares.

O’Leary noted that having the account with the firm would also make the transfer of assets between America and Canada very efficient and convenient.

"I do businesses, but my biggest pain point is with FX currency. When I have to transfer U.S.D. or Canadian back and forth, it's brutal. I mean, the wire and fed wire services are 60 years old. They're so archaic and they're really expensive and slow," he said.

The Shark Tank star continued:

"But if I had an account at Robinhood Canada and one in Robinhood U.S., I'll just transfer USD. in one second at practically no cost. And that, to me, is a huge win. I'm really excited about that".

O’Leary noted that the deal would also benefit the Canadian and American money center bankers, as he believes the platform is on the path to solving a "multi-trillion dollar market in FX."

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Shark Tank season 16 episodes air every Friday on ABC.