A crypto license can take years to get. In 2026, exchanges stopped waiting: Kraken bought Bitnomial for up to $550M to get a full US derivatives stack.

Asia accounts for 4 of the 7 deals. SBI took bitbank in Japan for ¥46.7B and Coinhako in Singapore, Bybit now runs NOBI as Bybit Indonesia, and Bitget is buying GMO's licensed Thai exchange, pending Thai SEC approval. Robinhood closed two deals announced in 2025: MIAXdx in the US and WonderFi in Canada.

Non-exchange buyers are moving too: Mirae Asset took Korbit, IG took Independent Reserve, OKX took 19.6% of Coinone, and Naver's deal for Upbit's parent is pushed to March 2027.

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