Synthetix Drops $27M Derive Deal After Community Pushback

Synthetix has called off its proposed $27 million acquisition of crypto options platform Derive.

This decision was made after the initiative received strong criticism from both communities involved.

Public Backlash

The proposed acquisition, first announced in a May 14 blog post, involved a token exchange at a rate of 1 SNX to 27 DRV. The plan was designed to combine Synthetix’s established market presence and on-chain expertise with Derive’s off-chain matching engine to build a leading decentralized derivatives platform.

However, the deal was subject to approval from both platforms’ communities, support that failed to materialize.

“Synthetix has withdrawn SIP-415, the proposal to acquire Derive after reviewing community and stakeholder feedback,” said the protocol in an update.

According to the team, the feedback revealed dissatisfaction with the token exchange terms and Derive’s valuation.

On the crypto options platform’s public forum, one user named “Ramjo” said the token exchange rate “poorly reflects the value of Derive,” calling it the “equivalent of selling the bottom.” Another community member, “AlvaroHK,” described the deal as a “terrible proposal” that wouldn’t benefit it at all.

They pointed out that Derive earns more revenue than Synthetix and warned about possible risks linked to the latter. This includes the recent depegging of its stablecoin sUSD, which fell to $0.68 in April, and its potential impact on the protocol’s treasury and token supply.

In a follow-up, the user questioned why there was no mention of what would stop Synthetix from continuing to print more tokens, revealing that they found guidance showing plans to raise the SNX supply from 330 million to 500 million. They argued that this undisclosed detail would dilute the Derive offer by another 60%.

Battle for Dominance

Derive started as part of Synthetix in 2021 under the name Lyra, but later rebranded and moved to operate independently. This included shifting away from using the sUSD stablecoin and liquidity.

If the re-acquisition had gone through, the company would have been issued with up to 29.3 million SNX tokens, with a lock-up period of three months followed by nine months of gradual release. However, with the token trading nearly 97% below its all-time high of $28.53 recorded in February 2021, the dilution risk and reduced value likely contributed to community hesitation.

Despite ending the proposal, Synthetix said it will continue to look for strategic opportunities to achieve its goal of building a top decentralized derivatives platform on the Ethereum mainnet.

This comes at a time of growing competition in the crypto derivatives space, with platforms like Binance, dYdX, and Hyperliquid all competing for dominance. Coinbase also recently announced a $2.9 billion deal to acquire Deribit, the largest digital asset options exchange.