Deribit Ends Daily Reserve Checks as Coinbase Custody Expands

Deribit will remove its public daily Proof of Reserves page on Sept. 1 during a wallet-infrastructure overhaul tied to its integration with Coinbase, after roughly 90% of client assets moved into Coinbase custody arrangements, according to Deribit’s own exchange update. The change ends a daily public client-level check, but it does not cancel Deribit’s regulatory reserve obligations, nor does it by itself indicate a reserve shortfall.

Deribit to Remove Public Daily Proof of Reserves Page During Coinbase Integration

Starting Sept. 1, Deribit will discontinue the public Proof of Reserves page that has let customers verify balance inclusion and compare aggregate liabilities against published wallet holdings on a daily basis. The exchange framed the removal as part of a wallet infrastructure overhaul connected to its integration with Coinbase, which acquired the derivatives platform in August 2025. Deribit said roughly 90% of client assets have since moved into Coinbase custody arrangements, though its disclosures name Coinbase only at the brand level and do not identify the specific Coinbase legal entity holding the migrated assets.

The system being retired uses a privacy-preserving binary Merkle tree paired with a daily snapshot. Each client could use a unique proof identifier to locate the hashed entries representing their own balances, while anyone could sum the file’s total liabilities and check that figure against wallet balances Deribit published separately.

That public snapshot was already narrower than Deribit’s full custody footprint. Its methodology excluded assets held with third-party custodians – Copper ClearLoop is cited as one example – on the grounds that such holdings sit outside Deribit’s direct control, and the notice does not clarify whether Coinbase-held assets were already excluded under that same logic before this change.

After Sept. 1, Deribit has not committed to a replacement public dashboard or any continuation of client-level Merkle verification. It said clients and counterparties can instead request audited financial statements and other due-diligence material – a channel that is less frequent and less directly verifiable than a daily self-checkable snapshot. Readers tracking how other major platforms have handled comparable custody transitions may find useful context in coverage of a separate crypto entity’s custody transfer.

Why the Transparency Change Matters for Derivatives Traders

For traders who use Deribit’s options and futures markets, the practical effect is a reduction in what can be independently tested each day rather than confirmation of any underlying problem. The daily Merkle check was one of the few tools that let individual clients verify their own balance was accounted for without waiting on a periodic audit or a request-only document.

Losing that daily cadence shifts the burden of verification toward less frequent, less public evidence – a meaningful change for a venue handling derivatives exposure, even though it says nothing definitive about solvency. Broader questions about how Coinbase’s growing footprint in custody and exchange infrastructure compares with other platforms’ approaches are worth tracking alongside reporting on a separate exchange group’s custody and banking expansion, though any comparison should be read as background rather than a direct read on Deribit’s specific arrangement.

VARA Reserve Rules Remain in Force After the Public Check Ends

The removal of the public page does not cancel the obligations that apply to Deribit FZE. Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority requires covered virtual asset service providers to maintain reserves equal to 100% of client liabilities, hold them one-to-one in the same asset, reconcile them daily, and obtain an independent third-party reserve audit at least once every six months, according to VARA’s reserve assets rulebook.

Deribit’s own notice references both annual and twice-yearly Proof of Reserves audits, while the VARA rule itself sets the minimum at once every six months. A separate VARA provision requires an annual financial-statement audit, with that annual report made available to clients and the regulator upon request rather than published for public daily viewing.

Covered firms must also submit wallet addresses to VARA monthly and file statements demonstrating compliance with financial requirements – including reserve assets – on a quarterly basis. VARA’s public register currently lists Deribit FZE as an active exchange and broker-dealer VASP. Deribit’s membership terms permit assets to be held either directly or through third-party custodians while requiring segregation from company assets and preservation of clients’ legal title, and a separate service-provider list names Coinbase for custody and self-custody technology without specifying which Coinbase entity is involved.

None of this regulator-facing reporting offers the same daily public visibility the Merkle-based page provided. It is a shift from continuous, self-checkable evidence to periodic, largely non-public compliance – a pattern worth weighing against how transparency questions have lingered for other platforms even after operational changes, as seen in reporting on risks that persisted after one exchange altered its regional operations.

What Customers and Counterparties Should Watch Next

Sept. 1 remains the confirmed date for the public Proof of Reserves page’s removal, and Deribit has not promised a replacement dashboard or continued client-level verification. The next concrete piece of evidence will be the independent reserve audits VARA requires at least every six months – reports that clients and counterparties can request even though they won’t offer the same daily transparency.

Which specific Coinbase legal entity now holds the roughly 90% of migrated client assets remains unspecified in Deribit’s disclosures, a detail worth watching for in future communications. As CryptoSlate first reported, the page’s disappearance is not evidence of a shortfall – it is a narrowing of what customers can verify on their own, leaving controls that are less frequent, less public, or available only on request.

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