The LSE Directory / Crypto exchanges
Deribit is a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange specialising in Bitcoin and Ethereum options, futures and perpetual swap contracts, alongside spot markets in a smaller set of major tokens. It launched in June 2016 as one of the first dedicated crypto options venues, built its own proprietary matching engine, and grew into what it describes as the world's largest crypto derivatives platform by volume. Deribit became a wholly owned subsidiary of Coinbase Global following a deal announced in May 2025 and completed on August 14, 2025. The exchange differentiates on depth and specialisation rather than breadth of listings. It concentrates liquidity in European style, cash settled BTC and ETH options and futures rather than offering a wide spot token catalogue, and that concentrated order book made it the reference venue for pricing crypto implied volatility. In March 2023 it became the first exchange to launch futures on its own volatility index, DVOL, built using a VIX style methodology. Its client base skews professional and institutional, market makers, hedge funds and crypto native trading firms use the platform for volatility trading, hedging and block execution, the last facilitated through a partnership with the trading platform Paradigm. This sets it apart from the largely retail orientation of general purpose spot exchanges. Deribit was founded by Dutch brothers John Jansen, a former Amsterdam options floor trader, and Marius Jansen, an early Bitcoin market maker, together with Sebastian Smyczynski, who built the exchange's matching engine as a co founder. The company originally operated out of the Netherlands, relocated its base to Panama in 2020 to sit outside EU KYC rules, then in April 2024 announced a move of its global headquarters to Dubai after its Deribit FZE entity received a conditional Virtual Asset Service Provider licence from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, the first such approval granted to a derivatives exchange. The Dubai migration took effect for institutional clients from January 1, 2025, with the Panama entity continuing to serve retail clients as a broker affiliate. Full year 2024 platform trading volume reached $1.185 trillion, up 95 percent year over year, with options notional volume of $743 billion, and open interest hit an all time high of $48 billion on November 28, 2024. Coinbase's acquisition of Deribit, whose legal entity is Sentillia B.V., closed on August 14, 2025, after being announced in May 2025 at an agreed value of about $2.9 billion. By closing, the total consideration transferred was reported at roughly $4.3 billion, made up of about $721.5 million in cash with the remainder in Coinbase Class A common stock. Both Jansen brothers departed the company after the deal closed, while Luuk Strijers, appointed CEO in 2024, continued to run the Deribit business inside Coinbase. Deribit went on to post a record monthly trading volume of about $185 billion in July 2025, even as newly launched regulated US options products began to compete for Bitcoin options market share.
