Deribit moves most customer funds to Coinbase and retires its daily proof-of-reserves
What changed (in plain, slightly dramatic English)
Deribit is pulling the plug on its public daily proof-of-reserves snapshot as of September 1. The exchange says this shift is part of a backend wallet rework tied to its integration with Coinbase. Since Coinbase acquired Deribit in August 2025, roughly 90% of customer assets have been shifted into Coinbase custody arrangements.
Until now, Deribit offered a privacy-minded daily snapshot using a Merkle-tree style proof so customers could verify their balances without revealing everybody’s balances. That public snapshot let anyone add up published liabilities and eyeball whether the exchange’s wallet totals matched — a quick, daily confidence check.
Why this matters (and what you can do about it)
Removing the public snapshot doesn’t magically make liabilities disappear, but it does take away the easy daily self-check customers had. Going forward, Deribit says the usual regulatory controls, reconciliations and audits remain in place, and clients can request audited financial statements or other due-diligence documents. Those are legit, but they’re slower, less public, and harder to verify with a single click.
Regulatory requirements for Deribit’s Dubai entity still demand strong reserve practices: keep reserves equal to client liabilities, reconcile regularly, and undergo independent reserve and financial audits on the schedule set by the regulator. Firms also must provide periodic reports and wallet addresses to the regulator on request. In short: the rules still exist, but they’re not as instantly visible to the public as a daily proof snapshot was.
Important to note: dumping the public page is not proof of a shortfall. It’s a transparency downgrade — from a daily, searchable proof to controls that are regulatory and request-based. If you’re a user who likes daily peace-of-mind, consider asking Deribit for the audited docs, or keep tighter personal records and communication logs. For heavy users or counterparties, don’t be shy about asking for verification paperwork.
Bottom line: custody moved, daily public proof-of-reserves is gone, and the system now leans more on formal audits and regulator-facing reports than on a public, instant snapshot. That’s less pretty, but not necessarily sinister — just less easily checked by you, the curious account-holder.
