Cryptocurrency exchange Bullish is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, rising by more than 83% on the first day

Source: The Paper

The U.S. stock market has once again welcomed the IPO of a cryptocurrency exchange.

In the evening of August 13 Beijing time, cryptocurrency exchange Bullish was officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Bullish raised $1.1 billion in this offering, with an issue price of $37 per share, which was higher than the previously announced range of $32 to $33. The IPO was oversubscribed by more than 20 times, and based on the issue price, Bullish's market value reached $5.4 billion.

At around 1 a.m. Beijing time, after the on-site bidding ended, Bullish opened at around $102, then once rose by more than 200%, reaching a maximum of $118 per share. Shortly after opening, it surged to a high, then Bullish fluctuated downward all the way, and finally closed at $68 per share, up 83.78%, with a market value of $9.94 billion.

Bullish's IPO also makes it the first cryptocurrency company to go public after U.S. President Trump signed the "Guiding and Establishing American Stablecoin National Innovation Act".

Many investors have compared Bullish with Circle Internet Corp. (CRCL.US), the issuer of USDC, the world's second-largest stablecoin, which went public not long ago. Both raised the offering size and the expected issue price range on the eve of listing, and their stock prices rose sharply on the first day. Although Bullish's intraday maximum gain on the first day of IPO was similar to that of Circle, Bullish failed to maintain the strong upward momentum on the first day of IPO. In contrast, Circle, whose issue price was finally set at $31 per share, once rose by more than 200% intraday and closed at $82.23 per share, an increase of 168.48%.

Bullish rose 11.18% after hours to $75.60 per share; in the night session, it currently rose 8.15% to $73.81 per share.

In the prospectus, Bullish stated that a subsidiary of BlackRock, Inc. and ARK Investment Management, LLC (ARK Fund) under "Sister Wood" intended to subscribe for up to $200 million of shares in Bullish's IPO. It is worth noting that BlackRock is one of the important investors of Circle, and many ETFs of ARK Fund also hold a lot of Circle shares.

Bullish has long had the intention to go public. As early as 2021, Bullish announced that it planned to go public on the New York Stock Exchange by merging with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Far Peak Acquisition Corporation (FPAC.US), and the transaction was expected to be completed by the end of 2021. However, the transaction ultimately failed.

Bullish was founded in 2020 and later registered a company in the Cayman Islands in 2021, with the vision of building an institutional-grade global exchange. Bullish was initially an independent operating entity under the blockchain company Block.one Group, which owns the well-known open-source software platform EOSIO. It is worth noting that Bullish's CEO is Tom Farley, former president of the New York Stock Exchange. Before taking office as Bullish's CEO, he was the chairman, CEO, and president of FPAC.

According to the prospectus, Bullish owns two major brands: "Bullish" and "CoinDesk". Among them, Bullish Exchange is a cryptocurrency exchange, and CoinDesk provides information services such as indices, data, and crypto market news. In November 2023, Bullish announced the acquisition of CoinDesk from Digital Currency Group (DCG) to operate as an independent subsidiary.

In 2024, Bullish's net profit was $80 million. As of the end of March this year, Bullish achieved a net loss of $349 million, with an adjusted net profit of $2 million.

However, Bullish still holds a large amount of crypto asset reserves. As of the end of March, the company's current assets included $28 million in cash, $144 million in USD stablecoins, $1.735 billion in Bitcoin (including WBTC), $22 million in Ether (including WETH), and $33 million in other digital assets.

According to Bullish's disclosure, as of the end of June, the company's current assets included 24,300 Bitcoins, 12,600 Ethers, as well as $418 million in cash, stablecoins, and other assets. Based on the current price of Bitcoin at approximately $124,000 and Ether at approximately $4,700, the value of Bitcoin held by Bullish exceeds $2.9 billion, and the value of Ether held exceeds $59 million.

Reporter from The Paper: Hu Zhiting

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