As the holiday season arrives and 2025 comes to a close, Bitcoin remains largely lacklustre, having dropped from euphoric highs of nearly $126,000 to intraday lows near $80,000. While this may seem like a comedown, the crypto market is actually winning on an entirely different front. While this price stagnation may feel like a “winter” to retail traders watching the charts, the underlying industry is actually winning bigger than ever before. Away from the daily volatility of the spot markets, 2025 has become the year of the Crypto Megadeal, according to data retrieved from PitchBook. Driven by the “Trump Effect” and a regulatory overhaul that flipped enforcement into encouragement, the industry saw a record $8.6 billion in deal volume, which marks a roughly fourfold surge from the year before. Wall Street’s newfound conviction was most visible on the stock exchange. In a historic “rush for legitimacy,” 11 crypto firms went public or uplisted on major US exchanges, raising a combined $14.6 billion in IPOs. Here are the biggest Power Plays that stole the headlines this year and redefined the institutional playbook for digital assets. Coinbase & Deribit: $2.9 billion The crown jewel of 2025 was Coinbase’s $2.9 billion acquisition of Deribit, announced back in May, that marked the industry’s largest-ever crypto exchange takeover. The deal was structured with $700 million in cash and 11 million shares of Coinbase stock. Strategically, this move solved Coinbase’s primary weakness: its lack of a dominant derivatives presence. By acquiring Deribit, which accounts for nearly 90% of all crypto options open interest, Coinbase has effectively positioned itself as the go-to “hedging desk” for Wall Street’s institutional traders, asset managers, and banks. Kraken & NinjaTrader: $1.5 billion Kraken made headlines in March when it acquired retail futures platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion, securing one of the most pivotal licenses in the game. This deal was not about technology as much as it was about licensing, as by acquiring NinjaTrader, Kraken secured a CFTC-registered Futures Commission Merchant license that allows it to offer both crypto and traditional futures to its millions of users under one roof. As such, Kraken has issued a direct challenge to the CME Group and opened up access to the traditional $2 trillion futures market for the crypto-native crowd. Ripple & Hidden Road: $1.25 billion Blockchain payments giant Ripple surprised the crypto community in April when it announced that it was acquiring Hidden Road for $1.25 billion. Hidden Road is a powerhouse “global credit network” that clears trillions of dollars annually for over 300 institutional clients, and that fits directly into Ripple’s long-term infrastructure play. Ripple became the first crypto company to own a multi-asset prime broker, and it is now using this infrastructure to deploy its enterprise-grade stablecoin, RLUSD, across Hidden Road’s massive institutional network. Hedge funds can now use stablecoins as collateral for high-frequency trading and real-time cross-border settlements. From magic money to blue chip Here are the biggest crypto IPOs that got Wall Street talking. Circle Internet Group (NYSE: CRCL) Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, stole the headlines with the most significant public debut of the year in June. After a previously aborted SPAC attempt, Circle successfully priced its upsized offering of 34 million shares at $31.00 per share. The IPO was a landmark moment for Wall Street, with the listing being 25 times oversubscribed as institutions scrambled for exposure to a compliant stablecoin issuer. On its first day of trading, the stock (ticker: CRCL) saw explosive demand, skyrocketing 167% to close at $82.84 and valuing the company at over $18 billion by market close—more than double its initial target. Backed by a powerhouse underwriting syndicate including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, Circle’s debut signalled that public markets now see stablecoins as critical infrastructure for global payments, not just a side bet in crypto. Bullish (NYSE: BLSH) Bullish, a Peter Thiel-backed exchange, made its public debut in November, raising $1.1 billion by selling 30 million shares at $37.00 per piece. By the daily close, Bullish managed to secure a valuation of around $5.4 billion, establishing itself as a major player among listed crypto exchanges. Unlike retail-heavy platforms, Bullish marketed itself specifically to Wall Street as a high-performance, institutional-only venue for digital assets. At the time of listing, it held over 100,000 Bitcoin on its balance sheet, serving as a safety net for investors. Although accompanied by some initial volatility, the stock eventually settled as a staple for institutional portfolios seeking a regulated way to bet on exchange infrastructure. Its success proved that Wall Street is willing to pay a premium for platforms that prioritise deep liquidity and bank-grade compliance over speculative retail features. Figure Technologies (Nasdaq: FIGR) As a blockchain-based lending platform, Figure made its market debut in September after upsizing its offering to 31.5 million shares priced at $22.00, following an initially smaller raise target. It managed to raise approximately $693 million and clocked in with a $4.66 billion valuation, as it sold Wall Street on the “efficiency” of blockchain to automate home equity lines of credit and other lending products and save traditional banks billions in back-office costs. Investors aggressively bid up FIGR shares, which jumped 24% on opening day, as the company showed how blockchain can help traditional banks cut billions in back-office costs. The post Crypto’s biggest year ever: inside the top 3 deals that fueled the $8.6B record appeared first on Invezz
