Coinbase has boosted its derivatives business by agreeing to buy crypto options exchange Deribit for $2.9 billion.
The deal will see Coinbase pay $700 million in cash and 11 million shares of its Class A common stock for Deribit, which has some $30 billion of current open interest.
Coinbase says Deribit rounds out its institutional derivatives offering, adding crypto options to its US futures and international perpetual futures businesses. The deal is also expected to immediately boost profitability and add diversity and durability to trading revenues.
According to Bloomberg, the agreement comes after months of talks which saw Coinbase face competition from Kraken, which eventually opted to pay $1.5 billion for NinjaTrader.
Deribit CEO Luuk Strijers says: "As the leading crypto options platform, we’ve built a strong, profitable business, and this acquisition will accelerate the foundation we laid while providing traders with even more opportunities across spot, futures, perpetuals, and options - all under one trusted brand."