When Dean Skurka joined Bitbuy in 2018, the platform had only four employees, a few thousand users and around 25 million dollars in negotiation volume. Quick advance for today, Skurka now supervises Wonderfi: a company that consolidates several Canadian scholarships, has 1.7 million accounts and kept $ 2 billion in customer assets.
But Skurka is not only sitting on a domestic empire – he is built outwards.
In a conversation with Coindesk, the president and chief executive officer of Wonderfi, Dean Skurka, detailed the next chapter of his business: launching a Blockchain of Couche-2 in partnership with Zksync and developing in Australia, a country he says “checks the two boxes” of regulatory clarity and strong adoption. He also discussed the prospects of centralized exchanges and how the cryptographic landscape of Canada is changing.
Here is a version published and shortened from its conversation with Coindesk, before its appearance in 2025 consensus in Toronto.
Push layer 2
The centralized exchange said in February that it launched a layer 2 blockchain based on Zksync to connect its users to decentralized finance (DEFI).
“When we think of the long -term trend through industry, we see a very strong synergy between centralized exchanges, where users are from or assets are from, and giving them a transparent bridge towards everything that happens on the chain today.”
Skurka says that Wonderfi’s knowledge of the execution of trading platforms, regulatory credibility and asset base gives it an advantage over a plethora of other layers 2 connecting DEFI.
Unlike some other rival layers of layer 2 launched with splashing symbolic incentives or overhaul, Skurka says that Wonderfi’s approach is more anchored and durable. It plans to promote long -term use thanks to incentives, hackathons and support for manufacturers’ ecosystems.
Centralized decentralized exchanges
Rather than considering decentralized exchanges as competitors for centralized exchanges, Skurka considers them as extensions. The centralized exchanges provide the bridge so that new users go from the purchase and sale of crypto on regulated platforms and confidence in chain activities which open new more innovative products that exist in the cryptographic ecosystem.
“”[Centralized exchanges] Build the components that will allow their users to interact transparently on the chain, but at the same time strengthen capacities on the side of the exchange to more resemble traditional financial service, which, in our view, will create an additional value on both sides in the next 5 to 10 years, “he said.
Evolution of crypto in Canada
Wonderfi is a dominant exchange in Canada and capable of observing how the cryptographic landscape changes in the country.
Canada has a strong crypto history – Ethereum and the first Bitcoin ETF spot were both born there. He was also one of the first countries to have a regulatory framework for cryptographic trading platforms.
“Some of the most innovative products and services that exist in this space have moved abroad or outside Canada because of the lack of clarity around these products and services,” he said, pointing products such as DEFI applications, blockchains and derivatives of layer 2.
Wonderfi now aims to change this, after working in close collaboration with Canadian regulators to create negotiation and stake guidelines.
“We work hand in hand with regulators to make them comforting some of these more innovative products and services, and I hope that this will encourage entrepreneurs, manufacturers, developers, to really stay in Canada and build products with confidence,” added Skurka.
And the United States is now becoming more open to crypto and numerous funds for the stock market open to investors, the state of mind in Canada is also starting to change. Wonderfi, which was a platform mainly dominated by the retail, now sees the interest on the part of Canadian institutional investors such as families and private actions who wish to expose exposure to digital assets.
“I think it was a very big change compared to the last year, and that’s something [institutional investors’ interest] That we expect to really accelerate in the coming years, “said Skurka.
Australia and beyond
Skurka does not stop in Canada; He seeks to extend the scope of his business to other regions, starting with Australia – a country that Skurka describes as “clear and concise regulations” and an cryptography adoption rate.
“Australia was a very cheap to target at the start, and from there, we will really seek other markets,” said Skurka.
The powerful volatility
Like the 24/7 nature of the crypto, the work of a CEO in this fast industry is never finished.
In the case of Skurka, this is exactly what keeps it at night: volatility – something that shapes the perception and feelings of industry.
“It is probably just short -term volatility that really has an impact on business prospects and has an impact on users, staff and morale of the team. And so it is really something that we really seek to balance the best that we can,” said Skurka.
But having been in industry since 2018 and navigating on extreme ups and downs, he learned to travel volatility.
“I think we have a very good mastery, and we have a very strong team which includes nature 24 hours a day – the volatility of this business – and we are in a very good place,” added Skurka.
