Coinbase Drops $2.9B to Snag Deribit, the Crypto Options Giant!

Holy smokes, folks! Coinbase just threw down a whopping $2.9 billion to buy Deribit, the biggest trading platform out there for bitcoin and ether options. That's some serious cash, and it's all according to the big shots at The Wall Street Journal.

This isn't just any deal—it's Coinbase's biggest move ever! They're splashing out $700 million in cold, hard cash and tossing in 11 million shares of their own Class A stock. Talk about going all in!

Deribit, which kicked off back in 2016 and calls Dubai home, isn't messing around. They're all about options, futures, and spot trading, and they're doing it big time.

Get this: in 2024, their trading volume nearly doubled to a mind-blowing $1.2 trillion! All thanks to those big-shot institutions jumping in after the election, says WSJ.

"This will make us the most comprehensive player in derivatives," declared Greg Tusar, Coinbase's VP of institutional product. And with Coinbase's market value soaring above $50 billion, they're already rocking futures in the U.S. and perpetual futures overseas.

Other Crypto Acquisitions

But wait, there's more! This blockbuster deal is happening just as the crypto world is buzzing with a comeback in deal-making, thanks to a friendlier regulatory vibe under President Trump.

Everyone's feeling the rush, and they're scrambling to beef up their product lineups. Take Kraken, for instance—they just snagged the retail futures platform NinjaTrader for a cool $1.5 billion. And Ripple? They dropped $1.25 billion on the credit network Hidden Road. It's like a feeding frenzy out there!

Coinbase's grab for Deribit? It's a clear sign they're betting big on crypto derivatives as the next big thing, especially with global institutions diving in deeper than ever.

And let's not forget, Coinbase has been on a roll. They've already snapped up One River Digital, now known as Coinbase Asset Management, and Tagomi, which is now strutting its stuff as Coinbase Prime.