Digital asset mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in 2025: major deals and trends

Crypto firms opened 2025 with a burst of dealmaking, therefore reflecting a push for strategic growth and cross-sector expansion. In May, Coinbase announced a $2.9 billion acquisition of Deribit, gaining a major foothold in crypto options and futures markets, particularly outside the US. A few months earlier, Kraken agreed to buy NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion, boosting its presence in regulated futures and paving the way into equities and payments. Ripple followed in April with a $1.25 billion deal to acquire Hidden Road, aiming to become the first crypto firm to own a global prime brokerage, and with the move enhancing its institutional services and strengthening the use case for its XRP-linked stablecoin. Meanwhile, MGX, an Abu Dhabi-based AI fund, committed $2.0 billion to acquire a stake in Binance, settling the deal in stablecoins; the investment deepens Binance’s ties with the UAE, a growing digital asset hub. In mid-2024, on the AI front, Fetch.ai, Ocean Protocol and Singularity…