Crypto’s Power Play

Robinhood, the popular stock and crypto trading app, is set to acquire Bitstamp for $200M. Will Robinhood become Coinbase before Coinbase becomes Robinhood?

Author

Marc Baumann
June 10, 2024

Hey, it’s Marc. ✌️

Crypto is set up for some big consolidation and IPOs.

Last week, the news broke:

  • Robinhood, the popular stock and crypto trading app, is set to acquire Bitstamp, one of the oldest crypto exchanges, for $200M in 2025.

  • Kraken in talks for pre-IPO fundraising round, IPO expected in 2025.

Why it’s important: Robinhood becomes a major international competitor for players like Coinbase and Binance.

It begs the question: Will Robinhood become Coinbase before Coinbase becomes Robinhood?

By the numbers: 📈

  • Robinhood had 13.7M active users in 2023

  • Bitstamp holds over 50 active licenses and registrations globally serving 5M users

  • Coinbase has around 100M registered and 10M monthly active users

What’s going on here? 🤨

What they’re saying: Maja Vujinovic, who is focused on M&A and technology integration, notes:

“Crypto is shaking up the financial system. The larger players can’t ignore it anymore. With the approval of ETFs, a broader institutional need to tokenize, and hundreds of stablecoins emerging globally, some parts of crypto will consolidate and M&A will intensify.”

– Maja Vujinovic

A look at previous M&A activity (non-exhaustive): 💰

  • 2024: CoinShares acquired Valkyrie Funds

  • 2024: SingularityNET, fetch.ai, and Ocean Protocol merged into the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance

  • 2024: Bitdeer Group acquired DesiweMiner

  • 2024: BitGo acquired Brassica

  • 2023: Ripple acquired Metaco for $250M

  • 2023: Hut 8 and US Bitcoin Corp merged

  • 2023: The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) acquired Securrency for $50M

  • 2023: Securitize acquired Onramp Invest

  • 2023: Fireblocks acquired BlockFold for $10M

  • 2022: Coinbase acquired One River Digital Asset Management for $97M

  • 2021: PayPal acquired Curv for less than $200M

  • 2021: Coinbase acquired Bison Trails for more than $457M

  • 2021: Mastercard acquired CipherTrace

  • 2021: ING acquired Pyctor

  • 2021: Nike acquired RTFKT

  • 2018: Circle acquired Poloniex for $400M

  • 2018: Binance acquired Trust Wallet

  • 2018: Coinbase acquires Earn.com for $100M

  • 2018: Kraken acquired Crypto Facilities for $100M

  • 2018: Lightyear Corp acquires Chain Inc for $350M

  • 2018: TRON Foundation acquires BitTorrent for $125M

Announced M&A deal activity in Q1 2024 was up 22% from the previous quarter, still below the pace of the peak year 2022.

Crypto is set up for some big consolidation and IPOs.

Who's next?

That’s all for now, folks.

I’ll be sending shorter updates more frequently in the future. As always: 100% signal, no noise.

Talk soon,

– Marc 

PS: Follow me on LinkedIn and X for shorter insights.

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