Deribit Valued at $400 Million After a Fundraiser from Existing Investors: Report

 

Panama-based crypto derivatives exchange Deribit has raised funds from existing shareholders at a $400 million valuation, The Block reported, citing “four sources with the knowledge of the matter.”

The two of these sources claimed that the exchange raised around $40 million in the deal, with the company’s existing shareholders include QCP Capital, Akuna Capital, and 10T Holdings.

However, per Luuk Strijers, Deribit’s chief commercial officer, the $400 million valuation “is essentially irrelevant.” His reason is that the fundraising is from existing – not external – investors.

Strijers was quoted as stating that: “It could have been any value. It’s more a clawback of dividends from existing shareholders. We paid a high dividend before and decided it’s more prudent to strengthen our balance sheet and retain assets instead of distributing them to shareholders.”

The true valuation will not be known, Strijers argued, until the company conducts external fundraising.

Per a source, Deribit was valued at $2.1 billion in its last funding deal in August 2021, when it raised $100 million.

Bankrupt 3AC Was a Deribit Shareholder

Back in June, Deribit said that Three Arrows Capital (3AC) was a shareholder of its parent company since February 2020. “Due to market developments, Deribit has a small number of accounts that have a net debt to us that we consider as potentially distressed,” they said at the time but noted that they would remain “financially healthy” even if none of the debt was repaid to them.

QCP Capital founder and shareholder at Deribit, Darius Sit, spoke against the circulating rumors that the exchange was also facing liquidity issues due to its exposure to 3AC.

As a shareholder of Deribit, i can confirm that the impact from 3AC is very well contained. Deribit is solvent and fully functioning. https://t.co/J0uULo9d0g

— Darius Sit (@dariussitzl) June 16, 2022

That said, one of the above-mentioned sources claimed that Deribit raised new capital to have its reserves back to the pre-3AC-event level – as Deribit had been forced to liquidate the crypto hedge fund’s positions after the latter could not meet margin calls.

3AC itself had seen massive losses and finally collapsed in a series of incidents that marked the Terra/LUNA infamous downfall.

Deribit decided on a liquidation application against 3AC in a British Virgin Islands court in June. The exchange claimed the crypto hedge fund failed to repay $80.13 million. Per the court documents, Three Arrows had borrowed bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) from the exchange in March 2020, and on June 11, 2022, as crypto prices crashed, the company breached Deribit’s loan stipulation to have a minimum balance in its account.

The amount owed consisted mainly of BTC 1,300 and ETH 15,000 in the loan, and negative asset values of $37.1 million, the Financial Times reported at the time.

In July, it was reported that Deribit was cooperating with ongoing investigations into the troubled crypto hedge fund.

According to a source speaking about the latest fundraiser, the 3AC incident combined with the bear market “translated into a steep discount for existing backers.”

Per an August report, Deribit is the world’s biggest BTC and ETH options exchange, accounting for more than 90% of the global total trading volume and open interest.

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Learn more: 
– Three Arrows Keep Hurting Crypto Market
– Money Printers Might Help Bitcoin & Its Derivatives Market – Deribit CCO

– FTX Builds $1 billion War Chest to Buy up Distressed Crypto and other Assets
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