Coinbase has agreed to snap up Deribit in a $2.9 billion deal, executives from both companies told The Wall Street Journal.
The deal is the single largest acquisition in crypto’s history, easily beating Kraken’s $1.5 billion deal for NinjaTrader earlier this year. Stripe said it planned to acquire Bridge in a $1.1 billion deal, and Ripple announced it would acquire Hidden Road for $1.25 billion.
The makeup of the deal is $700 million in cash and 11 million shares of its Class A common stock.
In a blog post, Coinbase said that it expects the deal to close by the end of this year.
By acquiring Deribit, which had been shopping itself around for a few months, Coinbase will now expand into crypto derivatives. Deribit has seen an uptick in overall trading volume activity thanks to a softening regulatory environment and expanding interest from institutional investors looking to capitalize on crypto.
“With Deribit’s strong presence and professional client base, Coinbase is making its most substantial move yet to accelerate our international growth strategy,” Coinbase said. It plans to create the most “comprehensive institutional derivatives platform.”
“We’re excited to join forces with Coinbase to power a new era in global crypto derivatives,” Deribit CEO Luuk Strijers said in a statement emailed to Blockworks.
“As the leading crypto options platform, we’ve built a strong, profitable business, and this acquisition will accelerate the foundation we laid while providing traders with even more opportunities across spot, futures, perpetuals, and options – all under one trusted brand. Together with Coinbase, we’re set to shape the future of the global crypto derivatives market.”
Prior to striking the deal with Coinbase, Kraken also expressed interest in the options exchange.
Overall crypto M&A has seen an uptick last quarter, per data from Blockworks Research. Crypto firms specializing in finance have seen the largest amount of M&A activity.
Updated May 8, 2025 at 9:30 am ET: Added additional context throughout.
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