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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:
- The crypto options exchange is still talking to Kraken for being acquired.
- The firm could be valued at over $5 billion, according to a previous report.
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.
Will Canny is an experienced market reporter with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. He’s now covering the crypto beat as a finance reporter at CoinDesk. He owns more than $1,000 of SOL.
