Coinbase has announced a landmark $2.9 billion acquisition of Deribit. Deribit is a leading Dubai-based crypto derivatives exchange, and with this deal, Coinbase will expand its international footprint and strengthen its position in the global derivatives market. As Coinbase buys Deribit, this transaction marks the largest acquisition in the history of the cryptocurrency industry. The deal comprises $700 million in cash and 11 million shares of Coinbase’s Class A common stock.
Shares of Coinbase, which had declined nearly 21% year-to-date in 2025, rose 5.7% following the announcement.
Key Takeaways
- Coinbase agreed to acquire Deribit for $2.9 billion, comprising $700 million in cash and 11 million Coinbase Class A shares.
- The move will strengthen Coinbase’s position in the crypto derivatives market by offering a broader range of spot, futures, and options trading.
- Coinbase shares, down nearly 21% in 2025 before the announcement, rose about 5.2% in pre-market trading after the news.
- The transaction reflects growing consolidation in the crypto sector, following Kraken’s $1.5 billion acquisition of NinjaTrader earlier in March.
Coinbase buys Deribit in a $2.9 Billion Deal, Aims to Reshape Global Crypto Derivatives Trading
On May 8, 2025, Coinbase agreed to buy Deribit outright for about $2.9 billion – $700 million in cash plus 11 million new Class A shares. They announced it at the same time on Coinbase’s blog and Deribit’s Insights site, and they expect to wrap everything up by the end of the year once regulators sign off and routine closing steps are done. This deal tops anything we’ve seen so far in crypto M&A – Kraken’s $1.5 billion buy of NinjaTrader now looks small by comparison.
What drives this move is the chance to fold Deribit’s options business into Coinbase’s existing lineup of spot, futures, and perpetual futures markets. That means traders will be able to move collateral and margin around more easily, cutting funding costs and smoothing out how they manage positions across different products.
Deribit brings deep liquidity and a solid market-making setup, so Coinbase can offer tighter spreads and faster execution across its global venues. Plus, Deribit already has a big footprint in Europe and Asia, so Coinbase gets instant scale in markets where leverage trading is standard.
The overall crypto derivatives scene has blown up fast – there’s now over $3 trillion in notional open interest floating around, and some analysts say it’s on par with the equity options boom of the ’90s. In places like Europe and Asia, where Deribit is strong, traders have been hungry for more sophisticated tools, and regulators have set up frameworks that make options and perpetuals easy to use.
Big names in the space know they need full-service derivatives platforms, and this isn’t the only consolidation you’ve seen – Ripple, Kraken, and others have been snapping up complementary businesses, too.
From a financial angle, Deribit has a history of healthy adjusted EBITDA, which should balance out the ups and downs of Coinbase’s spot business and give its margins a boost. Sure, issuing 11 million shares dilutes things a bit, but high-margin options revenue should pay off once the deal closes. Investors seemed to like the news – Coinbase’s stock jumped nearly 6% right after the announcement. And it fits with Coinbase’s strong start to 2025: in Q1, they pulled in about $2.03 billion in revenue, up 24% from a year earlier.
Coinbase has added Xapo, Tagomi, FairX, and One River Digital over the last few years. This time around, the $700 million cash portion shows they’ve still got room on the balance sheet, and giving Deribit’s team equity stakes lines everyone up on performance down the road. They’ve already started the groundwork to fold Deribit’s matching engine into their platform, targeting an early-2026 switch, so clients shouldn’t see much service disruption.
For traders and institutions, this should open up more ways to hedge and generate yield, and retail users will get better capital efficiency and risk tools. Deribit’s hedge-fund and market-maker crowd will benefit from Coinbase’s larger fiat onramps and global licenses, while employees at both firms can look forward to new projects and cross-training. Regulators will be watching closely, and this combined entity might set the bar for how regulated crypto derivatives platforms should work.
Speaking of regulators, Coinbase still needs the green light from the CFTC to offer options in the U.S., and they’ve got to confirm that Deribit meets Bermuda’s financial rules and any EU equivalence decisions. Their proactive approach – like beating back the SEC lawsuit earlier this year and joining the S&P 500 – should help, but shifting rules could slow down or tweak what products they roll out right after closing.
On the tech side, merging two low-latency systems is never easy. Coinbase’s process-driven style and Deribit’s startup culture will need to mesh, or they risk glitches or unhappy teams. They’ve got to make sure risk protocols line up and that client trust doesn’t slip while everything gets synced up.
Coinbase plans to use Deribit’s backbone to build out more advanced options strategies and keep expanding regulated derivatives globally. They’ve already slated U.S. perpetual-style futures to launch on July 21, 2025, under CFTC rules. Down the line, traders can expect better custody, trading, analytics, and API tools, plus more liquidity across venues. And on the R&D front, Coinbase is eyeing ways to tie on-chain derivatives into its regulated setup, which could blur the lines between centralized and decentralized markets.
The acquisition takes place against the backdrop of growing political backing for digital assets, with U.S. President Donald Trump reaffirming his intent to make the United States a leader in the global cryptocurrency arena. As regulatory sentiment turns more favorable, crypto companies are accelerating strategic acquisitions to scale operations and capture new markets. In a notable example, Ripple recently purchased multi-asset prime broker Hidden Road for $1.25 billion – its largest deal to date. Similarly, in March, Kraken revealed a $1.5 billion acquisition of retail-focused futures trading platform NinjaTrader.
About Coinbase
Coinbase Global, Inc. is an American cryptocurrency exchange founded in June 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, operating as a remote-first company with no physical headquarters. The platform enables individuals and institutions to buy, sell, transfer, and store a wide range of digital assets – such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USD Coin – through products like the Coinbase app, Coinbase Advanced, and Coinbase Wallet, while also offering services for staking, commerce, and custody across more than 100 countries.
Driven by the belief that “crypto creates economic freedom by ensuring that people can participate fairly in the economy,” Coinbase aims to update the century-old financial system for over 1 billion people by providing a trusted infrastructure for trading, safekeeping, and fast, free global transfers of crypto assets.
Coinbase went public via a direct listing on the Nasdaq on April 14, 2021, at a reference price of US$250 per share, valuing the company at approximately US$47 billion in one of the landmark debuts in crypto history. As of 2024, the exchange serves over 108 million users in more than 100 countries and holds upwards of US$400 billion in assets under custody – about 12% of all bitcoin and 11% of all staked Ether globally. In fiscal 2024, Coinbase reported revenue of US$6.56 billion, operating income of US$2.31 billion, and net income of US$2.58 billion, supported by a workforce of 3,772 employees.
About Deribit
Deribit is a Dubai-based crypto derivatives exchange founded in 2016. It focuses on Bitcoin and Ethereum options, futures, and perpetual swaps with leverage up to 50×. Known for its fast, institutional-grade trading engine, the platform supports advanced tools like portfolio margin and block trades. It serves professional and institutional users through a customizable web and mobile interface, backed by a team of 51–200 employees.
By 2024, Deribit handled over $1.1 trillion in trading volume and held more than 85% of the global Bitcoin options market. It supports 16 cryptocurrencies and offers 24/7 customer support. The company is fully licensed by Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority and holds top security certifications. In May 2025, Coinbase announced a $2.9 billion deal to acquire Deribit, marking the largest crypto derivatives acquisition to date, pending regulatory approval.
Conclusion
Coinbase’s $2.9 billion acquisition of Deribit marks a defining moment for the crypto industry, signaling a major shift toward consolidation and maturity in the global derivatives space. By integrating Deribit’s deep liquidity, advanced infrastructure, and strong presence in Europe and Asia, Coinbase positions itself as a full-spectrum trading platform capable of serving both institutional and retail clients with a comprehensive suite of spot, futures, and options products.
The deal not only strengthens Coinbase’s international reach and diversifies its revenue streams but also underscores growing confidence in the regulatory direction of the digital asset space. With major players like Ripple and Kraken also executing billion-dollar acquisitions, the competitive landscape is rapidly evolving. Pending regulatory approvals, this landmark transaction could reshape how crypto derivatives are traded and regulated worldwide, potentially setting a new industry standard for transparency, efficiency, and institutional accessibility.
