If you didn’t believe it after CoreWeave and Circle, then Figma’s monster $1.2 billion debut on the public markets made it official: Initial public offerings (IPOs) are back, and in a big way. After several years of a moribund IPO market, conditions have started to thaw, and there seems to be more demand from Wall Street. Shortly after Figma, a crypto exchange called Bullish, backed by the tech billionaire Peter Thiel, announced it would go public. The shares could start trading as soon as this week.
“We now intend to IPO because we believe that the digital assets industry is beginning its next leg of growth,” Bullish’s Chief Executive Officer Tom Farley said in the offering’s registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Trying to capitalize on crypto and stablecoins
Bullish wants to raise just over $629 million in an IPO that would value the company at more than $4.2 billion. Interestingly, Bullish is planning to convert a chunk of the proceeds into a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin. The crypto exchange focuses on institutional traders, offering a variety of services including spot, margin, derivatives trading, and liquidity and risk management.
Image source: Getty Images.
Bullish also provides a subscription-based liquidity and stablecoin service for various assets. Bullish had handled more than $1.25 trillion of volume at the end of the first quarter. Bullish is regulated in Germany, Hong Kong, and Gibraltar, and is pursuing licenses in other countries, including the U.S.
Bullish also acquired the popular crypto news website and data provider CoinDesk to offer investors insights, proprietary industry benchmarks and indexes, and news insights, although in terms of revenue, CoinDesk makes up a small percentage of the overall company.
Bullish is a fairly difficult company to analyze, primarily because its results seem so heavily affected by changing crypto prices. For instance, between 2022 and 2024, net income came in at a $4.2 billion loss, a $1.3 billion profit, and a nearly $80 million profit, respectively. That’s largely because these numbers include the change in the fair value of digital assets it held.
Bullish does attempt to strip out some of the volatility by providing adjusted revenue, net income, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA). Among other exclusions, adjusted EBITDA leaves out digital asset sales and the cost of digital assets derecognized; gains or losses from the remeasurement of the company’s digital assets; certain non-cash expenses like stock-based compensation; and the change in the fair value of investments in financial assets related to digital asset funds. Here is the company’s adjusted revenue, EBITDA, and net income in the years from 2022 to 2024.
Source: Bullish registration statement
Looking purely at trading volume on the platform, growth has been strong, climbing from roughly $145 billion in 2022 to $546 billion in 2024. In the 2025 first quarter, trading volume came in at an annualized pace of $918 billion. The company says its growth strategy will include obtaining more regulatory licenses, new product development, building its customer base, and mergers and acquisitions.
Can Bullish be the next IPO moonshot?
There are certainly some things working in Bullish’s favor. For one, regulatory clarity has provided a tailwind for crypto companies, with more people in mainstream finance willing to get involved. Bullish noted that Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood and BlackRock have already agreed to purchase $200 million worth of shares. It also looks like the company could debut with a low public float, limiting how many shares are available for trading.
It’s only offering 20.3 million shares in the IPO, and the company’s registration statement lists a diluted weighted average share count of more than 226 million at the end of the first quarter. The growth in trading volume is also impressive. Given the demand for IPOs, particularly in crypto, the notable names behind this one, and the low number of shares being offered, I could see a pop out of the gate.
However, looking at the adjusted numbers, the valuation seems lofty, so I could see any pop being followed by a sell-off as investors quickly take profits. The Bullish IPO could be volatile, and I’m staying on the sidelines.
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Bram Berkowitz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
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