The cryptocurrency industry is closing out the year with a record $8.6 billion in mergers and acquisitions, according to the Financial Times, a sharp increase from $2.17 billion the previous year.
The surge in deals comes amid a major policy shift in Washington, where the Trump administration has supported the sector with a series of regulatory developments including the GENIUS Act, which created a federal framework for stablecoins and paved the way for institutions to liquidate tokenized assets.
White House support helped spur 267 deals, an 18% increase from 2024, the story continued.
The biggest deal of the year was Coinbase’s $2.9 billion acquisition of crypto derivatives platform Deribit, marking the largest M&A move in the history of the sector.
It was closely followed by Kraken’s $1.5 billion purchase of NinjaTrader and Ripple’s $1.25 billion purchase of Hidden Road.
But it’s not all the White House. At least some of the buying, legal experts say, has been driven by a rush of licensing.
As new compliance regulations, including those relating to stablecoins and the EU’s MiCA framework, take hold globally, financial institutions are acquiring companies with approved licenses to accelerate their entry into cryptocurrency markets.
