Deribit to Route Most Spot Orders to Coinbase under New Dubai Licence

Deribit has received a broker-dealer licence from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), enabling the Coinbase-owned derivatives platform to route most spot trades to Coinbase Exchange for execution. The new arrangement keeps Deribit as the client-facing venue while Coinbase Exchange supplies the primary execution and liquidity for the upgraded spot product.

Deribit FZE had previously secured a VARA VASP licence for exchange services in January 2025, allowing spot trading under certain restrictions. The broker-dealer licence adds a separate permission for the upgraded spot model rather than replacing the existing exchange licence. Under the revised structure, most spot orders placed through Deribit will be sent to Coinbase Exchange, giving clients access to deeper liquidity and hundreds of additional assets listed there, according to Coinbase. A small number of assets will continue to trade on Deribit's own spot order book.

The move is part of the integration following Coinbase's roughly $2.9 billion acquisition of Deribit in August 2025. The deal comprised about $700 million in cash and 11 million Coinbase Class A shares. At the time, Deribit reported over $185 billion in trading volume in July 2025 and around $60 billion in open interest.

Luuk Strijers, senior director and head of international derivatives at Coinbase, described the licence as the point where the acquisition "starts delivering directly" for clients, since Coinbase can connect Deribit users to Coinbase Exchange liquidity without moving them onto the Coinbase interface.

The upgraded spot offering will be available to retail, qualified and institutional investors. Deribit's regulated derivatives business in Dubai remains limited to qualified and institutional investors under its existing VARA permissions. Coinbase also said assets purchased via the upgraded spot platform could later serve as collateral for derivatives trading on Deribit, but only after regulatory approval is granted.