Deribit Ditches Public Proof of Reserves Following Coinbase Acquisition

Deribit, a derivatives exchange acquired by Coinbase in August 2025, has announced it will remove its public Proof of Reserves page on September 1. This move comes after roughly 90% of client assets were moved to Coinbase custody arrangements following the acquisition.

The existing system used a privacy-preserving binary Merkle tree and daily snapshot, allowing clients to verify balance inclusion and compare aggregate liabilities with published wallet holdings. However, this public snapshot was narrower than Deribit's full custody footprint, excluding assets held with third-party custodians like Copper ClearLoop.

The removal of the Proof of Reserves page does not cancel the obligations applying to Deribit FZE, which is required by Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority to maintain reserves equal to 100% of client liabilities and hold them one-to-one in the same asset. The authority requires daily reconciliation and an independent third-party reserve audit at least every six months.