Coinbase enters the crypto options market: $2.9 billion acquisition of Deribit, betting on an influx of institutional investors. According to media reports on Thursday, the American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has agreed to acquire Deribit, the world's largest crypto derivatives exchange, for $2.9 billion, marking the largest merger and acquisition in digital markets history. The deal structure shows that Coinbase will pay $700 million in cash, with the remainder paid in stock.
Following the announcement of the deal, the stock rose nearly 5% in early trading on Thursday to about $206. However, due to a slight decrease in investor optimism regarding Trump's policies, the stock is still down about 20% since the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, Bitcoin prices broke the $100,000 mark for the first time since February on Thursday.
Regarding the acquisition, Coinbase's head of institutional products Greg Tusar stated: “We believe that crypto options are at the cusp of significant expansion, similar to the boom of stock options in the 1990s.” The transaction requires regulatory approval and is expected to be completed by the end of this year. A wave of industry mergers and acquisitions sweeps the crypto market, highlighting Deribit's value In fact, the merger and acquisition frenzy in the crypto industry has been ongoing for months. According to statistics, last month, payment company Ripple acquired the prime broker Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, while Abu Dhabi's MGX agreed to inject $2 billion into the world's largest exchange, Binance, using currency supported by Trump and his family’s World Liberty Financial.
Reports indicate that Deribit has been seeking to enter the U.S. market due to Trump's promise to make the U.S. a leader in the cryptocurrency market. Crypto exchanges like OKX and Nexo have already made plans to establish offices in the U.S. Deribit CEO Luuk Strijers stated: “As a leading crypto options platform, we have built a strong, profitable business, and this acquisition will accelerate the foundation we have laid while providing traders with more opportunities covering spot, futures, perpetual contracts, and options—all under a trusted brand.” Mark Palmer, a senior equity analyst at Benchmark Company, stated that this transaction “will immediately give (Coinbase) a dominant position in the high-growth derivatives space to meet the anticipated increase in institutional adoption of digital assets.” It is worth noting that many traders use derivatives to borrow heavily in order to increase their leverage in cryptocurrency investments, a market that was severely hit three years ago. In 2022, the industry experienced a series of high-profile bankruptcies, hacking incidents, and token collapses, which severely undermined investor confidence, the most notable being the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX exchange, which became the largest bankruptcy case in cryptocurrency history
