Latham & Watkins is acting for Coinbase in its $2.9bn acquisition of crypto options exchange Deribit, which is being repped by Willkie Farr & Gallagher.

The deal, the biggest yet in the crypto industry, positions Coinbase to boost its international foothold – Deribit controls roughly 85% of the global crypto options market according to CoinDesk. Last year the exchange processed $1.2trn in volume, a 95% year-over-year increase.

Latham’s corporate team is being led by Bay Area partners Saad Khanani and Tad Freese. The firm also acted for Coinbase in its acquisition of One River Digital Asset Management in 2023 and guided the financial advisers to Coinbase’s initial public offering in 2021.

The Willkie team guiding Deribit is led by New York corporate and financial services partners Jared Fertman and Thomas Sharkey.

The deal, expected to close by year-end, is made up of $700m in cash and 11 million shares of Coinbase. Coinbase said the acquisition complemented its US futures and international perpetual futures businesses, completing its derivatives offering.

“This is an important step toward our goal of providing traders access to spot, futures, perpetual futures and options trading – all in one platform,” the company said. It added the deal would make it the global leader in crypto derivatives by open interest and options volume.

“Deribit facilitated over $1trn in trading volume last year across key markets ex-US, with strong demand from institutional and advanced traders. We believe crypto options are on the cusp of significant expansion, similar to the equity options boom of the 1990s – this acquisition positions Coinbase to lead this growth,” it said. 

The deal is the latest big M&A move in the crypto market, which has been re-energised by the election of US President Donald Trump and the expectation that regulations will ease as a result. 

Coinbase competitor Kraken, which had also been in talks to buy Deribit, completed its acquisition of retail futures platform Ninja Trader for $1.5bn at the start of this month. Jones Day and Lowenstein Sandler advised Kraken on the deal, while Ninja was counselled by Choate Hall & Stewart and Katten Muchin Rosenman.

Last month, San Francisco-based crypto payments firm Ripple also called in Gunderson Dettmer and A&O Shearman for the acquisition of brokerage house Hidden Road for $1.25bn. Hidden Road is being repped on the deal by Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz.