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Gm!

It’s Friday, woo!

What a week for crypto news. We’re going to wrap this week up with some info on OKX’s US offering and a look at what the Coinbase-Deribit deal means for crypto (spoiler: it’s a win).

We’ll see you bright and early Monday.

🤠 The wild west

Almost a month ago, OKX announced an expansion into the US. 

To lead the expansion, OKX tapped Roshan Robert, who’s held a number of TradFi-crypto roles throughout his career — having worked at both Hidden Road and Barclays. 

On paper, the expansion makes sense: OKX wants a piece of the American pie, which is now more intriguing and, well, friendlier. 

However, Robert told me he actually joined OKX back in September, before the path forward became more clear and when it looked like SEC chair Gary Gensler would still be in charge. 

“I joined [OKX] before we had any idea of how the elections were going to turn out. Over the past many years, I have had a belief that public blockchains are the future of finance,” he said. 

It was a “no brainer” to build out a US position, he told me. The team then plotted out next steps, which would later turn out to include a California headquarters. 

“A lot has evolved since I've joined, including some long-awaited regulatory clarity in the US, and it's a more stable environment to properly expand in the US,” he continued. 

OKX has the opportunity to expand with a “strong compliance and risk management focus,” with the goal of delivering seamless onramps and low fees to users. The team also aims to ensure that between the risk management and the liquidity, it’s bringing in institutional clients. 

But no doubt it’s a crowded arena right now, and from the looks of things, both Kraken and Coinbase are making billion-dollar acquisitions to differentiate their offering.

OKX picked San Jose to embed itself in Silicon Valley’s “innovation engine.” Right now, it’s available in 46 states (and Washington, DC). The focus is not only to keep building, but securing the proper licenses before looking at other areas to expand its presence. 

It may be early days for OKX in comparison to some of the other giants operating in the US right now, but I also have to point out that OKX is kind of doing the opposite of Coinbase and Kraken. The two US-based companies are looking to expand internationally, whereas OKX has an international presence and is doing the exact opposite — expanding to the US. 

I’m curious to see how OKX can go toe-to-toe with the other big exchanges once it's had some time to mature in the market.

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We all know the Coinbase-Deribit deal is a huge win — both for the industry and for Coinbase itself. As I said above, part of the selling point was that Deribit gives Coinbase an edge in international markets. 

Empire co-host Santiago Santos said there’s a lot of “signaling” that Coinbase's acquisition of Deribit allows for them to integrate it into their “core offering.” He added that the firm’s been lacking on the options and perps front.

In a note, Cantor Fitzgerald analysts said Deribit’s volume exceeded $1 trillion outside of the US last year, and the firm has “consistently generated positive adjusted EBITDA.”

If you were to ask the analysts for a grade, they’d tell you A+.

Once the deal closes, it will cement Coinbase at the top of the derivatives list, allowing the exchange to capture a profitable niche. 

Barclays analysts noted that by bringing Deribit’s offerings stateside, Coinbase could boost its ability to compete against other US firms. 

“If Coinbase does bring the offering to the U.S., we think this could strengthen their competitive positioning vs. Robinhood in particular, which we believe is the second largest retail options player in the US, and which also seeks to broaden its advanced trading offering, including in crypto,” they wrote. 

If we zoom out, Empire co-host Jason Yanowitz noted that he’s never seen “so many crypto companies in market right now.”

With Coinbase-Deribit rounding out the top 3 biggest crypto deals we’ve ever seen — and all of them happening back-to-back — I wouldn’t be surprised to see more down the pipeline. 

It’s M&A szn, y’all.

And now you know.

From NFTs to prediction markets, loyalty engines to mobile-native wallets — Permissionless IV is where real users meet real products.

Crypto’s next big unlock isn’t technical — it’s usable. Come build it. 

June 24–26 in Brooklyn.

Last week, I asked: How’re we feeling in May?

The majority of you are prepared for chaos, which is fair. One person chose “Sell in May and go away,” to which I have to ask: Are you okay, friend? I’m here for you. 

This week, I’m wondering: