Deribit Holds 96.6% of Coinbase Derivatives Open Interest

A snapshot of Coinbase’s derivatives venue panel retrieved at 15:42 UTC on Sept. 1 showed $40.65 billion of open interest across three venues. The panel attributed $39.26 billion, or 96.6%, to Deribit, $1.17 billion to Coinbase Derivatives and $226.98 million to Coinbase’s International Exchange. The dashboard’s headline total at retrieval was $40.55 billion, a $100 million live-snapshot difference from the venue panel.

The scheduled Sept. 9 migration covers the International Exchange trading book, client accounts and related market infrastructure valued at $226.98 million. The balances already recorded at Deribit, totaling $39.26 billion in the Sept. 1 view, will remain on that venue. Coinbase’s migration materials say the cutover date depends on client readiness and any required regulatory approvals and could change.

Coinbase expects roughly 30 minutes of downtime for the migration window. The company’s institutional FAQ explains that all open International Exchange orders will be canceled, positions will be settled at the mark price with profit and loss crystallized and funding paid, balances will be transferred, and positions will be recreated on Deribit at the same settlement price through matched migration trades. Those migration trades will be maintained as administrative records. If the International Exchange settles independently before the cutover, clients could see an immediate unrealized profit or loss when Deribit markets reopen.

Trading conventions differ between venues. International Exchange perpetual contracts settle every five minutes and apply funding hourly without a rate clamp. On Deribit, perpetuals settle once daily at 08:00 UTC; funding accrues continuously, is reflected in realized session P&L, is quoted as an eight-hour rate and is reduced to zero by a damper when the mark price is within 0.025% of the index. Deribit also caps the eight-hour funding rate at 0.5% for BTC, 1% for ETH and 5% for USDC- and USDT-related contracts in either direction. These mechanics will change how intraday P&L and funding are calculated and reported for migrated positions.

API and recordkeeping will change after the transfer. International Exchange API endpoints will stop supporting trading following Sept. 9, and clients will need new Deribit credentials for REST, WebSocket, FIX or SBE connections. Coinbase expects International Exchange APIs to preserve historical order and trade data for about 12 months.

Counterparty and custody arrangements will differ by client. Institutions that only hold an International Exchange account will use Coinbase Bermuda Limited as broker and custodian, which will route orders to Deribit for execution. Customers that already trade on both venues will maintain Coinbase Bermuda for custody but trade directly with Deribit FZE as counterparty. Some clients that use third-party custody may move their trading relationship to Deribit Panama, identified by Coinbase as DRB Panama, Inc.

Regulatory context includes a May 29 Commodity Futures Trading Commission staff letter that said the types of digital-commodity perpetuals described by Coinbase Financial Markets could be categorized as foreign futures and granted a conditional no-action position. That staff position creates a fact-dependent intermediation path under which a U.S.-registered futures commission merchant can post eligible customer-owned digital commodities and payment stablecoins through Coinbase Bermuda to Deribit for margin under a right of re-use. The no-action position carries nine conditions, including consolidated ownership requirements, filing and reporting steps, customer access to Deribit’s audited financials and SOC 2 report, criminal-disqualification bars, consolidated risk and information-security controls, collateral haircuts, segregation requirements and enhanced disclosures. The staff position applies to the described facts and products and may be changed or withdrawn.

The large share of open interest shown at Deribit predates the planned Sept. 9 consolidation. Coinbase’s venue-level figures reflect where open interest is recorded, not where customer assets are held. The Sept. 9 transfer concerns the International Exchange book and related accounts and infrastructure.