Crypto dealmaking accelerates to $8.6B on policy optimism

The 2025 financial reports recently positioned the crypto industry as the sector with the most significant deals, totaling approximately $8.6 billion. This substantial achievement has been attributed to US President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto stance, which has improved investor confidence in the sector and promoted mergers and acquisitions centered on the crypto ecosystem.

The news followed a financial analysis conducted by Pitchbook, revealing that a total of 267 deals had been struck in the crypto industry as of December 23. This record marked a considerable 18% rise from 2024.

Crypto deals surge, reaching the highest levels this year 

Coinbase secured a leadership position with the major acquisition of Deribit for approximately $2.9 billion, marking the most significant acquisition in the crypto industry to date.

Meanwhile, apart from the leading cryptocurrency exchange, other notable mergers included Kraken’s acquisition of futures trading platform NinjaTrader in a deal valued at around $1.5 billion. Ripple also struck a $1.25 billion agreement to acquire Hidden Road, a global credit network and institutional prime broker that supports the cryptocurrency industry.

This great achievement in the crypto ecosystem has been attributed to US President Donald Trump’s move to pave the way for opportunities for the crypto community in the United States. Some of the efforts Trump implemented included imposing several deregulation measures and withdrawing regulatory lawsuits. This decision, in turn, prompted traditional financial institutions to make significant investments in the sector.

Reports also confirmed that approximately $14.6 billion was collected from 11 initial public offerings (IPOs) linked to crypto worldwide. This finding illustrated a major surge from $310 million raised in 2024 via four IPOs.

On the other hand, analysis regarding the highly anticipated  IPOs this year was also drawn. It was discovered that Bullish, the digital asset platform, a major crypto exchange and tech firm popular for institutionally-focused crypto trading, was the most long-awaited IPO this year which collected $1.1 billion, followed by Circle Internet Group, a global financial technology firm known for issuing the popular USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin, that purchased over $1 billion; and lastly, Gemini, another significant crypto exchange that gathered $425 million. 

Diego Ballon Ossio, a partner at the law firm Clifford Chance, weighed in on the situation. Ossio noted that traditional finance firms and crypto-related businesses are actively targeting companies for their licenses, particularly those recognized by authorities for strictly adhering to the EU’s MiCA regulations. He also acknowledged that there is a high possibility that this trend would continue in 2026.

Analysts predict that demand for stablecoin firms will increase next year 

Reports indicate that several analysts predict that demand for stablecoin firms will continue to escalate in 2026, driven by the adoption of new crypto-friendly regulations in the US and the UK.

This forecast was made after Charles Kerrigan, a partner at the CMS law firm, stated during an interview that firms will make considerable investments to remain compliant with the new licensing rules, mostly through acquisitions.

Kerrigan also predicted that newly adopted crypto rules in the United States would prompt traditional finance companies to begin exploring the industry, resulting in an increasing number of mergers and acquisitions.

Interestingly, this crucial year for crypto deals unfolds despite the crypto market’s downturn towards the end of the year, with BTC experiencing a drastic decrease of more than 30% from its all-time high of over $ 126,000, set in early October.

Currently, analysts have observed that the cryptocurrency has remained relatively unchanged over the last 24 hours, with a level of just below $88,000. This level was attained after it recovered from an intraday low of almost $86,500. 

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