Crypto M&A Surges 30-Fold as Niche Firms Shift to Mainstream

21shares spent years building its crypto franchise outside Wall Street’s orbit. From Zurich, it launched exchange-traded products that gave European investors access to Bitcoin and Ether long before the US would allow them.

Now, in selling itself to FalconX — a crypto prime broker backed by Tiger Global and Singapore’s GIC — the company is trading autonomy for scale as crypto moves closer to the financial mainstream.

The deal underscores a broader shift: crypto specialists are entering traditional investment channels through regulated products. And the FalconX-21shares deal is part of a broader surge. Crypto M&A topped $10 billion for the ...