Deribit to Remove Public Proof of Reserves as Coinbase Integration Proceeds

Deribit removes daily public balance verification tool

Deribit will shut down its daily public Proof of Reserves page on September 1. The change comes as the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange completes an integration with Coinbase, its new owner since August 2025.

The removed tool allowed customers to privately check if their balances were included in Deribit's published totals. For the first time, the public will no longer have daily visibility into the exchange's wallet holdings.

Key numbers in the transition

• Approximately 90% of client assets have moved into Coinbase custody arrangements.
• The shutdown date for the public dashboard is September 1.
• Deribit has not promised a replacement public dashboard or continued client-level Merkle verification.
• Coinbase's specific legal entity holding the migrated assets was not identified in disclosures.

What Deribit says about the change

In a notice regarding the update, Deribit stated the change reflects a wallet infrastructure overhaul during its integration with Coinbase. The exchange mentioned that clients and counterparties may request audited financial statements and other due-diligence material, which serves as a less frequent and less directly verifiable form of evidence compared to the daily public checks.

Existing regulatory requirements remain

Deribit noted that regulator-required reserve, reconciliation, and audit controls will remain in place, even though they do not provide the same daily public visibility. Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) requires Deribit FZE to maintain reserves equal to 100% of client liabilities and hold them one-to-one in the same asset.

Additionally, VARA mandates daily reconciliations and independent third-party reserve audits at least every six months. A separate provision requires an annual financial-statement audit, with reports available to clients and the regulator upon request. Covered firms must also submit wallet addresses monthly and demonstrate compliance with financial requirements quarterly.

Transparency concerns

The removal is not evidence of a reserve shortfall. However, it reduces the amount of data customers can test for themselves each day, leaving controls and reports that are less public, less frequent, or available only on request. The public snapshot previously excluded assets held with third-party custodians, such as Copper ClearLoop, though it remains unclear if every Coinbase-held asset was already excluded from that system.

Source

• CryptoSlate