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By Ian Allison, Omkar Godbole, Will Canny|Edited by Parikshit Mishra
Updated Feb 20, 2025, 10:04 a.m. UTCPublished Feb 20, 2025, 10:02 a.m. UTC
What to know:
Cryptocurrency options exchange Deribit is still talking to Kraken for a potential acquisition, contrary to reports that the U.S. exchange had walked away from a potential deal to buy Deribit, a person familiar with the matter said.
Recent reports also confirmed the crypto options platform was working with FT Partners to assess takeover bids, but Deribit CEO Luuk Strijers ruled out a takeover situation. The firm could be valued at $4 billion- $5 billion or even more, according to Bloomberg.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
A second source said listed U.S. exchange Coinbase (COIN) has also been kicking the tires of Deribit.
Deribit is an appealing takeover target because it’s the overwhelming market-leading exchange for digital asset options trading, which Kraken would be looking to add to its trading offering, Strijers had said in an earlier report.
Kraken and Deribit declined to comment.
Ian Allison is a senior reporter at CoinDesk, focused on institutional and enterprise adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Prior to that, he covered fintech for the International Business Times in London and Newsweek online. He won the State Street Data and Innovation journalist of the year award in 2017, and was runner up the following year. He also earned CoinDesk an honourable mention in the 2020 SABEW Best in Business awards. His November 2022 FTX scoop, which brought down the exchange and its boss Sam Bankman-Fried, won a Polk award, Loeb award and New York Press Club award. Ian graduated from the University of Edinburgh. He holds ETH.
Omkar Godbole is a Co-Managing Editor on CoinDesk’s Markets team based in Mumbai, holds a masters degree in Finance and a Chartered Market Technician (CMT) member. Omkar previously worked at FXStreet, writing research on currency markets and as fundamental analyst at currency and commodities desk at Mumbai-based brokerage houses. Omkar holds small amounts of bitcoin, ether, BitTorrent, tron and dot.
Disclosure
CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of the Bullish group, which owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish group equity-based compensation. Bullish was incubated by technology investor Block.one.
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