Authors: flowie, Fairy, ChainCatcher
Editor: TB, ChainCatcher
Recently, Coinbase announced it would acquire the crypto options exchange Deribit for $2.9 billion, comprising $700 million in cash and 11 million Class A common shares of Coinbase. This sets a new record, surpassing Kraken's $1.5 billion acquisition, making it the largest acquisition in crypto history.
As the largest cryptocurrency options exchange by market share, Deribit saw Bitcoin and Ethereum options trading volumes reach 80% and 90% respectively during the bull market of 2024. Why retreat at such a time? After Coinbase's exorbitant acquisition of Deribit, how will the landscape of the crypto derivatives market be reshaped?
The legendary development of the options king, Deribit
Deribit was registered in the Netherlands in 2016, co-founded by brothers John Jansen and Marius Jansen.
The establishment of a crypto options exchange stemmed from the practical needs of brother Marius, who was one of the earliest Bitcoin investors needing to hedge risks; however, at that time, the derivatives in the crypto market were blank, so he turned to his brother John, who has a professional background in options, to plan the startup. John has been involved in options trading since 1998, having worked as a trader at the Amsterdam Options Exchange, and is currently the CEO of Deribit.
Deribit initially focused on Bitcoin options and futures trading, filling a gap in the crypto derivatives market at that time. In 2017, Deribit launched Bitcoin perpetual contracts, becoming one of the earliest exchanges to offer such products.
After 2018, the futures trading market began to grow, with Huobi and Binance also entering the futures market. Despite facing competition, Deribit, which entered the market early in 2019, has become the world's largest Bitcoin options exchange due to its professional options experience and low fees, maintaining a dominant position in this market. By early 2020, Deribit's market share in Bitcoin options had reached as high as 86%.
Subsequently, Deribit has also raised over $140 million through three rounds of financing to achieve faster expansion. QCPCapital, Three Arrows Capital, 10T Holdings, and Akuna Capital are among the investors behind it.
Although Deribit's user demographic primarily consists of demanding professional investors and institutional users, it has maintained a good reputation in its pursuit of growth, with very few negative occurrences.
During the bull market of 2024, Deribit again experienced significant growth, with its annual trading volume exceeding $1.1 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 95%. Among this, options trading volume increased by 99%, while spot trading volume achieved an astonishing growth of 810%. The platform's daily trading volume once exceeded $1.9 billion, with total open contracts reaching a historical high of $48 billion on November 28, 2024.
Deribit has also continued to consolidate its leading position in the crypto options market, with its Bitcoin options trading volume once accounting for over 80% of the total market trading volume, while Ethereum options trading volume reached as high as 90%.
Deribit's operations span across 160 countries or regions globally, and after obtaining a license from the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) in 2024, it has found new ground for growth.
Why did Deribit choose to 'retreat bravely' at its peak?
Throughout Deribit's growth, it has consistently faced two key issues: compliance challenges and growth bottlenecks.
In 2020, to avoid the EU's strict KYC requirements, Deribit relocated its operational base to Panama. In 2023, in response to regulatory pressures, Deribit further moved to Dubai, and in February of this year, due to sanctions implemented by the EU, Deribit announced its exit from the Russian market.
Deribit CEO Luuk Strijers has repeatedly stated that as global regulatory frameworks tighten, many crypto trading platforms will exit the market due to high operational costs or direct shutdowns by regulators, and Deribit itself faces similar challenges.
In addition to compliance challenges, how to break through the ceiling may be a greater dilemma for Deribit.
Deribit faces extremely limited growth space in the crypto options market, and it is also facing the risk of being eaten away. Other centralized exchanges are continuously expanding their derivatives trading functions, with BitMEX, OKX, and Bybit strengthening their derivatives layout, and Kraken also acquiring NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion. These competitors attract a large number of users by offering high leverage trading, user-friendly interfaces, and low trading fees. Additionally, the rise of decentralized exchanges (DEX) also poses competitive pressure on it.
In addition to maintaining its position in the crypto options market, Deribit’s horizontal expansion in pursuit of growth is not easy either. Currently, the entire crypto industry lacks new liquidity, and major exchanges like Binance and OKX are facing internal competition and growth dilemmas across various sectors. Under regulatory pressure and internal competition, this may mean that Deribit will incur higher operating costs for uncertain growth.
In this context, choosing to leverage a merger may be a step for Deribit to transition from maintaining its position to breaking through.
Although Deribit possesses leading technology and market share in the crypto options field, its product line remains relatively singular. A merger with Coinbase could create complementary effects in spot, futures, and options, building a more complete derivatives ecosystem.
For Coinbase, Deribit can bring about $30 billion in open contract volume and over $1 trillion in trading volume, significantly enhancing its competitiveness in derivatives; for Deribit, leveraging Coinbase's global user base and compliance advantages, especially in the deep layout of the U.S. market, will facilitate its internationalization.
This acquisition also occurs at a key turning point in policy: during the period of Trump’s return to the White House and the promotion of crypto-friendly policies, the market's demand for compliant platforms has significantly increased. In this context, Deribit's choice to retreat at this time may be a wise decision to leverage the situation and move towards the next growth curve.
How will Coinbase reshape the landscape of crypto derivatives?
Since 2014, Coinbase has completed at least 21 acquisitions, and this acquisition of Deribit is its largest transaction in history. This not only marks a strategic upgrade for Coinbase but also highlights the accelerating trend of mergers and acquisitions in the crypto derivatives market.
In addition to Deribit, many derivatives platforms are also 'selling themselves'. On February 28, CoinDesk reported that BitMEX, a veteran crypto derivatives platform founded by Arthur Hayes, is also seeking to sell. Additionally, the crypto derivatives startup Arbelos Markets has been sold to the crypto brokerage FalconX.
The rapidly growing and mature crypto derivatives market has become a battleground for leading players. In 2024, the global average daily trading volume of the crypto derivatives market has exceeded $100 billion, with monthly trading volumes surpassing $3 trillion.
In 2024, Coinbase has also been actively expanding its derivatives business, adding over 90 new assets to its international exchanges to drive the growth of its derivatives trading volume. According to a report by CCData, Coinbase's market share in derivatives increased by 3.89% in 2024.
However, compared to building on its own, acquisitions can be a quick and effective way. By acquiring Deribit, Coinbase can rapidly enhance the scale and competitiveness of its derivatives business, enabling it to compete with global derivatives giants like Binance and Bybit.
This acquisition could have a profound impact on the landscape of the crypto derivatives market. As market concentration increases, other cryptocurrency exchanges may face strategic adjustments or even a wave of industry consolidation. Meanwhile, smaller exchanges will face greater competitive pressure and may become marginalized.
Traditional financial institutions have long entered the crypto market through ETFs and derivatives, and the strong alliance between Coinbase and Deribit will undoubtedly attract more institutional investors, further promoting the integration and intersection of traditional finance and the crypto market.
However, whether Coinbase can continue Deribit's specialized product style and high standards to serve this market well remains to be seen.
The crypto industry is ushering in a wave of mergers and acquisitions
According to RootData, there have been 48 acquisition events in the crypto space since 2025, averaging nearly 10 crypto acquisitions per month.
In the entire year of 2024, acquisition events reached 105, setting a historical high, a 36.3% increase from 77 in 2023.
In terms of acquisition amounts, there have been 9 mergers and acquisitions exceeding $100 million in 2024 so far, and the acquisition amounts have consistently broken new highs. Shortly before Deribit was acquired for $5 billion, Kraken had already acquired the US futures trading platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion in March 2025.
Acquisition cases exceeding $100 million in 2024
As the cryptocurrency market matures, the trend of industry consolidation is evident, with only a few platforms being able to stand out in the end.
In an incentivized market competition, giants quickly expand their products and services through acquisitions. For the acquired projects, under the situation of inverted valuation between primary and secondary markets, merging can be a perfect exit strategy compared to issuing tokens.
