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Coinbase's acquisition of Deribit shows the growth of the derivatives market

The deal reflects the competition among exchanges to dominate the burgeoning derivatives market.

Coinbase's agreement to buy Deribit highlights the increasing importance of financial derivatives for cryptocurrency exchanges, according to industry executives.

On May 8, Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S. by trading volume, agreed to acquire the cryptocurrency derivatives platform Deribit for USD 2.9 billion, in the largest corporate acquisition in the cryptocurrency industry to date.

The deal reflects a growing competition among exchanges and digital asset brokers — including Coinbase, Kraken, and Robinhood — to dominate the burgeoning cryptocurrency derivatives market.

“Global derivatives trading is a key growth engine for Coinbase,” said Spencer Yang, co-founder of Fractal Bitcoin, a scalability solution for Bitcoin, to Cointelegraph.