A version of this article appeared in our The summary October 24 newsletter. Register here.
Hello! Eric here.
Coinbase’s $375 million purchase of cryptocurrency investment platform Echo this week highlights two things: First, competition is heating up. Second, the number of mergers and acquisitions in the sector is about to skyrocket.
That’s according to Wyatt Lonergan, general partner at VanEck Ventures, who said DL News that cryptocurrency startups are no longer just competing within the “fairly small space” of digital asset companies, but now also against multi-billion dollar financial giants.
Competing in a small space is “very different than competing with the 100 billion pound gorilla,” Lonergan said.
What has changed? Well, everything.
US President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto policies have eased regulators’ oversight of the industry and paved the way for industry-friendly laws.
At the same time, companies like stablecoin issuer Circle and cryptocurrency exchange Gemini have raised billions of dollars in their initial public offerings.
The combination of these factors has encouraged Wall Street giants and fintechs to enter cryptocurrencies like never before. They launched new services and recruited new talent to compete better.
Both traditional financial firms and crypto firms are acquiring smaller startups that offer everything from payments to custody to infrastructure.
This increasing competition means that both industry-native companies and outsiders are actively acquiring smaller companies, essentially outbuying the competition. Hence the increase in mergers and acquisitions.
Stripe, Kraken, Robinhood, and Ripple are just a few of the big players that have announced acquisitions in 2025.
More than 200 such deals worth around $20 billion have already been announced this year, said Karl-Martin Ahrend. DL News in September. He expected those figures to rise to $30 billion across 400 deals in 2025.
Things look bullish.
CZ Biden’s ‘war on crypto is over’ as Trump pardons former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, former CEO of Binance, the industry’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, according to White House officials. Reporting by Liam Kelly and Aleks Gilbert.
Nigel Farage became the star of the crypto conference. Not everyone is happy
The Reform Party leader has pledged to turn the UK into a cryptocurrency hotbed if elected prime minister, but not everyone in the industry is happy with his support.
Solana quietly ends support for the Saga mobile phone just two years after launch
The developers behind Solana’s Saga mobile phone announced on Monday that they will stop providing vital software and security updates for the phone just two years after its launch, Tim Craig reports.
Post of the week
Concerns about the threat of quantum computing received a new look this week when a Google breakthrough brings the technology much closer to being used in real-world applications.
A sufficiently powerful quantum computer could crack Bitcoin’s cryptographic algorithm, putting the $2.2 trillion asset at risk.
Quantum computing is basically Bitcoin’s climate change. There are many idiots who deny it because they cannot grasp the amorphous or the astronomical, and many scientists who understand it still have no socially convincing solutions to offer.
We need Bitcoin Greta.
– Jeff Park (@dgt10011) October 23, 2025
