Recommended reading: We are about to usher in a new cycle of mergers and acquisitions Coinbase has just acquired Deribit for $2.9 billion. This is the largest merger and acquisition activity in the history of cryptocurrency. The return on investment of venture capital by VC is decreasing, and the cost of capital is increasing again. Therefore, due to higher opportunity costs, VCs are chasing transactional opportunities. As more and more new assets are issued, as shown in the figure below, the amount of liquidity chasing them is decreasing.