According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Coinbase, the leading U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, has agreed to buy crypto options trading giant Deribit for a staggering $2.9 billion.
This marks the largest transaction in the history of the cryptocurrency industry so far. The deal has been financed with $700 million in cash and 11 million shares of the exchange's Class A common stock, the report says.
The shares of Coinbase are up nearly 5% in premarket trading amid Bitcoin's price surge.
The leading U.S. cryptocurrency trading platform intends to gain a firmer footing within the thriving crypto derivatives market with the help of the mammoth acquisition.
Deribit, which was launched back in 2016 in the Netherlands, boasts roughly $25 billion in Bitcoin options open interest, according to the data provided by analytics platform CoinGlass. Deribit moved to Panama in 2020 due to regulatory reasons.
The massive acquisition deal does come as a surprise. In March, Bloomberg reported that the two companies were already in "advanced discussions," but it was not clear whether any final agreement had been reached back then.
The crypto megadeal follows enterprise blockchain company Ripple's $1.25 billion acquisition of prime brokerage Hidden Road. According to Bloomberg, the company was also willing to fork out up to $5 billion to buy rival Circle, but the offer was reportedly rejected due to being too low.
Kraken, one of Coinbase's main competitors, agreed to acquire futures trading platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion in March.
Vladislav Sopov