On the same day Coinbase made global headlines with its $2.9 billion acquisition of crypto options exchange Deribit, two of the company’s top executives took the stage at the Bermuda Digital Finance Forum to spotlight the island’s growing role in the digital asset economy.

Greg Tusar, Coinbase's vice-president for institutional product, said: “We have a long history of M&A [but] this will be the largest transaction in crypto history.” Mr Tusar said that the Deribit team’s global distribution and comprehensive capabilities would create “a platform that nobody else will have.”

That panel, which included Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of SkyBridge Capital and the former White House communications director, focused on how new technology is changing finance and the challenges of creating fair rules. Mr Scaramucci said politics plays a big role in shaping financial innovation, and that rising populist views are helping to push changes in technology.

“[US president Donald] Trump wants to Brexit the US from the rest of the world,” Mr Scaramucci said, comparing political isolationism to how technology is also becoming more divided. He critiqued the political landscape, particularly the influence of money in legislation, stating that the Citizens United Supreme Court decision has “skewed [the] legislative agenda to big business, plutocracy, oligarchy.”

Coinbase’s Tom Duff Gordon, vice-president of international policy, used his remarks during a later panel to stress the importance of regulatory clarity, especially for institutions. “In multiple jurisdictions we operate in, there's a bifurcation … the rules are very tough on the retail side. I think investor protection is so important, but engagement is important too,” he said, adding that Bermuda’s “risk-based approach makes a lot of sense for us.”

Mr Duff Gordon also spoke about the challenge of localising global markets while keeping operations efficient. “We want to have a spoke model,” he said. “Bermuda is small, but it’s effectively a hub … and I think Bermuda has a good and healthy approach.”

Mr Tusar expressed cautious optimism about crypto legislation. “I personally think [crypto] hasn’t really been as political as lots of other issues,” he said. “My hope is we can get through this moment and get back to it being more of a bipartisan issue.”

The Deribit acquisition positions Coinbase to expand its derivatives trading, with Mr Tusar pointing to how important it is to integrate “perpetual futures” and “options” into its ecosystem.

Mr Scaramucci, a Coinbase shareholder, sees the move as part of a broader technological transformation. “We're not just talking about a shift in the global economic board,” he noted, “we're talking about a very new transformation in broad technological underpinnings of the economy.”