Crypto M&A hits record as Coinbase, Kraken lead

Traders Union
All News
Crypto News
Crypto ma hits record

All news

Editors' Picks

Crypto News

Financial News

Market Voices

Billionaires

Companies

Broker News

Regulators News

Yaroslav Dmytrenko

04.12.2025

Crypto M&A hits record as Coinbase, Kraken lead — 2025 sets new high for crypto mergers and acquisitions

Crypto M&A deal volume reached a new all-time high in 2025, surpassing $8.6 billion. Coinbase, Kraken, and Ripple led the largest transactions before the market crash in October.

Despite the fact that the crypto market has been in decline since October and has lost over $1 trillion in market capitalization, the first three quarters of 2025 were enough to set a new record for M&A activity. The total deal value of $8.6 billion exceeds the combined figures of the previous four years.

“Major crypto companies became more inclined toward acquisitions in 2025 as lower interest rates, regulatory clarity, and a bullish market earlier in the year put them into growth mode,” PitchBook noted.

Coinbase and Kraken led the multi-billion dollar acquisitions. Coinbase allocated $2.9 billion to acquire the options exchange Deribit. Kraken followed by purchasing NinjaTrader, a retail futures trading platform, for $1.5 billion.

Ripple also entered the race, paying $1.25 billion to acquire prime broker Hidden Road. These deals proved pivotal and helped 2025 surpass the previous record set in 2021 ($4.6 billion).

In terms of the number of transactions, the year also reached a new high. In 2025, 133 deals were completed, compared to 107 in 2022. This increase was driven by aggressive buying from companies such as Coinbase, which has completed 24 deals since 2020, including eight in the past 12 months alone.

Record run before the fall

Notably, Architect Partners, which uses a different M&A tracking methodology, reports an even higher deal volume — up to $12.9 billion. In any case, this marks the largest year of consolidation in the crypto industry’s history. However, the boom was short-lived. Since October, the crypto market has been declining and companies have suffered losses.

Coinbase, which remains the largest crypto exchange in the United States, has lost about 20% of its market capitalization this quarter. While it is still up more than 8% year-to-date, the drop has been sharp.

American Bitcoin, a mining company linked to the Trump family, went public in September via a merger. Since October 1, however, its shares have fallen by approximately 70%. And this is not an isolated case.

Many companies that went public primarily as Bitcoin-holding vehicles are now facing pressure from collapsing valuations and eroding investor confidence, while those that have not yet listed are reconsidering whether to delay their IPOs.

One of the most closely watched deals today involves the merger of Twenty One Capital, a Bitcoin company backed by SoftBank and Tether, with Cantor Equity Partners. The SPAC is led by Brandon Lutnick, chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald. Investors are currently deciding whether to approve or reject the deal.

A second vote is also taking place involving ProCap BTC, led by Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano, and Columbus Circle Capital Corp. I. A key metric to watch will be the redemption rate (how many shares are exchanged for cash).

As we wrote, Crypto M&A reaches record $10 billion amid rate cuts

This material may contain third-party opinions, none of the data and information on this webpage constitutes investment advice according to our Disclaimer. While we adhere to strict Editorial Integrity, this post may contain references to products from our partners.