Deribit options exchange is evaluating buyout offers: Report

It’s said that the cryptocurrency options exchange, Deribit, might be considering acquisition offers, since mergers and acquisitions within the blockchain sector are increasingly becoming more active.

Based on a January 14th Bloomberg report, Deribit enlisted Financial Technology Partners in 2023 to assist with secondary share transactions for current investors. However, the scope of their role has since grown to assess potential buyout proposals as well.

The exchange could be worth between $4 billion and $5 billion, said Bloomberg.

In essence, Deribit stated to Bloomberg that they are not being sold. However, over the course of time, there has been interest expressed in potential strategic investments by several parties, which they prefer to keep confidential.

As an analyst, I’ve learned from my sources that while Kraken hasn’t officially submitted a buyout proposal, they are rumored to be among the potential parties in the running for this acquisition, according to reports by Bloomberg.

As an analyst, I’m sharing some insights about Deribit – a crypto derivatives exchange that made its debut in 2016. According to CoinMarketCap data, it’s considered one of the world’s top players in this space due to its impressive trading volume. In fact, over the last 24 hours, it managed an astounding $1.4 billion in trades. Moreover, its open interest, which reflects the total number of outstanding derivative contracts, currently stands at approximately $2.8 billion.

As Bloomberg reported, Deribit’s trading volume nearly doubled to $1.2 trillion in 2024. 

2024 saw the official move of our operations to Dubai, UAE, following the acquisition of a Virtual Asset Service Provider license.

Blockchain M&A activity heating up

The pace of acquisitions is increasing significantly within the cryptocurrency and blockchain sectors. This trend indicates that the industry is growing up, as businesses are striving to enlarge their market footprint and take advantage of improved economies of scale.

As an analyst, I’d rephrase the statement like this: In my analysis, one of the latest significant acquisitions that caught my attention was made by Chainalysis, a firm specializing in blockchain analytics. They recently acquired Alterya, an AI fraud detection startup, for approximately $150 million. Interestingly, just a month prior to this acquisition, Chainalysis also bought Hexagate, a Web3 security company, as part of their strategic expansion into threat prevention.

This week, MoonPay, the platform facilitating fiat-to-crypto transactions, revealed its acquisition of Helio – a blockchain transaction processor – for a sum of $175 million. This purchase aims to enhance MoonPay’s merchant payment infrastructure.

In the brokerage sector, FalconX has recently acquired cryptocurrency derivative company, AbdelsMarkets, without disclosing the purchase price.

According to ARK Invest’s CEO, Cathie Wood, she anticipates that President-elect Donald Trump will ease up regulations regarding mergers and acquisitions in the blockchain sector. This prediction is based on potential deregulation and alterations at the Federal Trade Commission.

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2025-01-15 00:23