CoinGecko Explores $500M Sale as Wall Street Rushes Deeper Into Crypto

CoinGecko, one of the most widely used cryptocurrency data platforms in the world, is evaluating “strategic opportunities” as reports surface that the company may be exploring a sale at a valuation of roughly $500 million.

CEO and co-founder Bobby Ong confirmed the discussions on Thursday, emphasizing that the move is not driven by weakness—but by strength.

“We’re growing, profitable, and seeing increasing demand from institutions as traditional finance embraces crypto,” Ong wrote on LinkedIn. “The crypto industry is maturing fast.”

According to reports, CoinGecko has tapped U.S. investment bank Moelis to advise on the potential transaction. The choice of advisor is telling.

Moelis is a heavyweight in traditional finance, having worked on more than $5 trillion in transactions across multiple industries. Its past mandates include advising Netflix on its $83 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery and Skydance Media’s successful bid for Paramount Global.

By bringing in Moelis, CoinGecko appears to be positioning the deal squarely in front of Wall Street and institutional buyers rather than venture capital firms. The message is clear: crypto data infrastructure is no longer niche—it’s becoming core financial plumbing.

“Regulatory clarity is improving,” Ong said. “Institutional adoption continues to pick up momentum.”

Founded as a neutral and transparent data provider, CoinGecko has built its reputation on delivering unbiased, high-quality crypto market data used by investors, developers, and institutions worldwide.

“We’ve focused on delivering data that people trust to make informed decisions,” Ong said, highlighting the platform’s appeal as crypto increasingly intersects with traditional finance.

As banks, asset managers, and fintech firms move deeper into digital assets, reliable market intelligence has become mission-critical—making CoinGecko a strategic asset rather than just a media or analytics platform.

CoinGecko’s timing aligns with a historic surge in crypto mergers and acquisitions. Deal volume is on track to exceed the record $37 billion set in 2025, underscoring how aggressively both crypto-native and traditional firms are pursuing consolidation.

According to Architect Partners, crypto dealmaking jumped 74% year over year in 2025, reaching 356 transactions. Of those, 39 deals topped $100 million, while 17 exceeded $500 million.

Several headline-grabbing transactions crossed the $1 billion mark, including Coinbase’s acquisition of Deribit, Kraken’s purchase of NinjaTrader, Stripe’s acquisition of Bridge, and Ripple’s takeover of GTreasury.

Karl-Martin Ahrend, co-founder of crypto M&A advisory firm Areta, said traditional financial institutions are increasingly choosing to buy crypto capabilities rather than build them from scratch.

“What you have built with CoinGecko is a generational outlier,” Ahrend wrote in a LinkedIn post.

Even amid market uncertainty, Ahrend expects dealmaking to remain strong. The largest exchanges and infrastructure providers are sitting on substantial cash reserves and have ample capacity to pursue acquisitions.

“Even in a risk-off scenario, we would still expect M&A to remain active,” Ahrend said, pointing to the strong balance sheets and strategic urgency driving consolidation.

For many fintech and financial institutions, acquiring an established crypto platform like CoinGecko offers a faster, lower-risk path into digital assets than developing in-house solutions.

CoinGecko exploring a potential $500 million sale is about more than a single company—it’s a sign of how far the crypto industry has come.

What began as grassroots infrastructure for early adopters is now attracting serious interest from Wall Street’s biggest players. If a deal materializes, it could mark another milestone in crypto’s transition from speculative frontier to institutional-grade market.

As Ong put it, the industry is growing up—and traditional finance is taking notice.