The world’s largest cryptocurrency options exchange is reportedly planning to enter the American market.
Dubai-based Deribit is “actively reassessing potential opportunities” in the U.S., CEO Luuk Strijers said in an interview with the Financial Times (FT) Sunday (May 4), after “the recent shift towards a more favorable regulatory stance on crypto in the U.S.”
As the FT noted, Deribit joins a wave of crypto companies from Europe and Asia aiming to capitalize on President Donald Trump’s pledge to make the U.S. the global digital assets hub.
The crypto exchanges OKX — based in the Seychelles — and Bulgaria’s Nexo are both planning to open U.S. offices, as are Switzerland’s Wintermute and Dubai’s DWF Labs, two of the sector’s biggest market makers.
Crypto companies had for the past few years been shifting their focus away from the U.S. due to a regulatory crackdown by agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) following the downfall of the FTX exchange.
Trump, however, has courted the crypto industry, promising to “make the U.S. the crypto capital of the world,” with the SEC having halted or ended several high-profile cases since the election, and the Department of Justice disbanding its cryptocurrency enforcement unit.
The Trump family has also launched several ventures in the crypto sector, from stablecoins to bitcoin mining to memecoins from both the president and first lady.
“I think the entire market feels good about regulatory clarity,” David Rutter, CEO of British blockchain firm R3, told the FT. “The Trump memecoin was a big signal that things had changed for the U.S. in a pretty sizable way.”
This shift is happening as crypto is entering a new phase of mainstream financial adoption, as PYMNTS wrote last week. For example, the Arizona State Legislature recently advanced a pair of bills that could pave the way to create the country’s first state-level bitcoin reserve, while Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) is doubling down on its own bitcoin stockpile by raising $84 billion to purchase more of the top crypto asset.
And Brown University recently disclosed a $4.9 million investment in BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF, spotlighting a wider acceptance of cryptocurrencies in diversified portfolios.
“Against this backdrop, observers believe it is becoming increasingly held, across Wall Street and beyond, that digital assets may no longer be confined to speculative circles,” PYMNTS wrote. “As bitcoin ETFs become a growing component of diversified portfolios and regulatory frameworks begin to crystallize, the decentralization dream that once defined crypto appears to be giving way to a new era of structured integration.”
