Crypto dealmaking just blew through every previous record in 2025, with total mergers and acquisitions crossing $8.6 billion by November 20. That’s more than what the entire sector pulled off in the last four years combined.
The number jumps even higher, all the way to $12.9 billion, if you go by the count from Architect Partners, who use a different way of tracking these transactions. Either way, it’s the biggest year ever for crypto consolidation.
This wave of deals kicked off earlier in the year, when rate cuts, new rules, and a bullish crypto market under President Donald Trump’s administration opened the floodgates.
Coinbase and Kraken lead billion-dollar acquisitions
Coinbase shelled out $2.9 billion to buy options exchange Deribit. Kraken followed up with a $1.5 billion move to buy NinjaTrader, a platform for retail futures trading.
Ripple stepped in too, paying $1.25 billion to acquire prime broker Hidden Road. These were the headline transactions that sent 2025 past the previous record set in 2021.
Deal volume also hit a record. A total of 133 transactions were signed this year, up from 107 in 2022. The old high for deal value, $4.6 billion in 2021, doesn’t even come close. This surge was fueled by aggressive buying from firms like Coinbase, which has now done 24 deals since 2020 and eight just in the last 12 months.
The boom didn’t last. By October, the crypto market crashed, wiping out more than $1 trillion in value. Prices fell sharply, and public companies took a hit. Coinbase, still the largest crypto exchange in the U.S., lost around 20% of its market cap this quarter. It’s still up more than 8% for the year, but the slide has been brutal.
American Bitcoin, a mining company with connections to the Trump family, went public in September through a merger. Since October 1, it’s down roughly 70%. And it’s not alone. Firms that went public mainly to hold Bitcoin are now feeling the pressure as valuations collapse and investor confidence fades.
Pompliano and Cantor SPACs face pressure from redemptions
One major deal under the spotlight today involves Twenty One Capital, a Bitcoin company backed by SoftBank and Tether, merging with Cantor Equity Partners. That SPAC is led by Brandon Lutnick, the chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald.
Investors are voting today to approve or reject the deal. Another vote is happening on a second transaction involving Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano’s ProCap BTC and Columbus Circle Capital Corp. I. The redemption rate (how many shares get swapped for cash) will be a key number to watch.
Both SPACs are trading well below their earlier highs. That’s making the math tough. If the redemptions are too high, these deals might unravel. And that could spell trouble for Brandon’s next move: another SPAC tie-up with a Bitcoin firm called BSTR (short for Bitcoin Standard Treasury Co).
Terms on the two current SPAC deals aren’t the same. The Cantor-Twenty One deal raised $165 million through a PIPE. Shares were priced at $21 back in June, almost 50% above Tuesday’s closing price. If the market doesn’t rebound, that valuation could be hard to defend.
The ProCap BTC deal includes 9 million shares going to the SPAC sponsors, a typical promote structure, where insiders get shares for almost nothing. That kind of setup drew heat during the last SPAC collapse. But it’s still being used.
An entity linked to Pompliano invested $8.5 million and will own more than 10 million shares once the deal closes. Based on the current market price, those shares are worth over $100 million. Pompliano will also keep working with the new company, providing consulting, marketing, and advertising services.
