Crypto M&A tops $40b in 2025 as buyers seek scale and speed

The breakneck pace of crypto M&A isnt accidental. Behind the 40+ billion-dollar deals of 2025 lie four strategic battlegrounds where acquirers are fighting for dominance:

Trading platforms have become prime targets, not for retail user bases, but for regulatory licenses and institutional infrastructure. When Robinhood acquired Bitstamp earlier this year, insiders saw it as a regulatory power play.

The acquisition gave Robinhood instant access to dozens of jurisdictions and a turnkey institutional trading desk. Similar moves by Coinbase and Swift reflect a new reality: compliance capabilities are now the competitive moat in cryptos regulated future.

“Youve seen Robinhood acquiring Bitstamp to increase their licensing footprint around the globe and also add institutional trading capabilities.” Karl-Martin Ahrend noted. Swift has acquired AZ crypto… to obviously consolidate user numbers and create significant synergies between the two businesses.

The quiet consolidation in staking services tells another part of the story. As proof-of-stake networks now secure the majority of cryptos value, control over validation operations has emerged as a strategic imperative.

Firms like Source Strategies are absorbing smaller validators, such as Solana-native players, to bring key operations in-house. The goal across the board is vertical control, faster deployment, and future-proofing in an increasingly competitive arena.

At the same time, payment processors are racing to own the entire stablecoin value chain, from issuance to settlement. Stripe‘s acquisition of Preview and MoonPay’s European shopping spree reveal a clear pattern: companies are internalizing every step of crypto payments to capture this booming market.

With nearly 80% of crypto businesses now using stablecoins for B2B transactions, these moves represent bets on cryptos future as a mainstream payment rail rather than just a speculative asset.

Perhaps the most radical development is unfolding transparently on blockchain ledgers themselves. The rise of token-based acquisitions, like Enzymes all-token purchase of Microfinance, shows how decentralized organizations are rewriting the M&A playbook.

But as Areta‘s Jan-Philip Grabs noted during the presentation, “Unlike in more traditional M&A deals… you’re really lacking the clear framework and processes.” These on-chain mergers face unique challenges, from community governance hurdles to untested legal ground, yet they point toward a future where blockchain-native dealmaking becomes commonplace.