Coinbase’s agreement to acquire crypto options giant Deribit affirms the trend of industry players flocking to a fast-growing derivatives market.
Industry observers expect more deals to come in this sub-sector, as the changing regulatory landscape empowers crypto giants to capitalize on heightened institutional demand.
The crypto exchange is set to pay roughly $2.9 billion for the Panama City-based company — $700 million in cash and 11 million shares of COIN stock.
Coinbase said in a blog post that Deribit’s options platform complements its US futures and international perpetual futures businesses — “completing our derivatives offering.”
The company added: “This is an important step toward our goal of providing traders access to spot, futures, perpetual futures, and options trading — all in one seamless, capital-efficient platform.”
This deal — subject to regulatory approvals — “would give the company an immediate and dominant foothold in the high-growth derivatives space ahead of an anticipated increase in institutional adoption of digital assets,” Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer wrote in a Thursday research note.
After all, he noted, Deribit is the world’s largest platform for bitcoin and ether options. Its nearly $1.2 trillion in trading volume in 2024 was almost double that of the prior year.
“The firm’s sophisticated trading tools, which cater to institutional and high-frequency traders, could strengthen Coinbase’s Prime platform and institutional appeal,” Palmer explained.
This pending deal follows Coinbase’s 2022 acquisition of FairX, which was later rebranded to Coinbase Derivatives Exchange. That gave the company a CFTC-regulated platform for offering crypto derivatives in the US.
Coinbase is now going a step further by expanding its international footprint, Morningstar analyst Michael Miller said.
“This is also a sign that the new regulatory environment is giving them more confidence to be aggressive in their growth efforts,” Miller told me.
The crypto industry saw a record number of M&A deals during the first three months of 2025. There were 62 such crypto transactions in Q1, according to advisory firm Architect Partners — up from 59 deals in the final quarter of 2024.
This deal would surpass — in size — two others revealed earlier this year. Kraken shared in March that it was set to purchase NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion. A few weeks later, Ripple said it agreed to buy Hidden Road — a prime broker clearing $3 trillion annually — for $1.25 billion.
Before those, digital asset prime broker FalconX bought trading firm Arbelos Markets in January as part of a push to become one of the largest crypto derivatives dealers.
“It follows our thesis that derivatives M&A will continue to be active,” Architect Partners’ Michael Klena told me. “But the difference in this deal is scale, as Coinbase acquired one of the largest in a headline deal.”
Because derivatives are a higher-margin product than spot trading, firms will look to expand those types of offerings as trading fees are compressed, he added.
Regulatory changes and optimism around upcoming crypto-friendly frameworks has also spurred institutional demand — further fueling these kinds of moves. Coinbase’s institutional trading volume in 2024 amounted to $941 billion, which was up 139% year over year.
“Since Coinbase is taking captive one of the largest derivatives firms, their competitors will be looking to enhance product via acquisitions,” Klena said. “So overall it’s a deal that makes sense in the market, and we expect more to come around derivatives trading and infrastructure.”
Coinbase’s stock price was roughly $205 at 11 a.m. ET, marking a 4.3% increase on the day.
The company is hosting a Q1 earnings call at 5:30 p.m. ET. Following the deal announcement, Palmer noted: “Our estimates for the company are under review.”
Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter for more on Coinbase’s Q1 results.
Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:
