Peter Thiel-Backed Bullish IPO Eyes $4.2B Valuation—Can It Outshine Circle’s Blockbuster Debut?

Wall Street’s crypto fever just got hotter. Bullish—the exchange heavyweight backed by Peter Thiel—is gunning for a $4.2 billion valuation in its upcoming IPO. But here’s the real question: Will it pull a Circle and send traders into a frenzy, or fizzle like yet another overhyped fintech unicorn?

Thiel’s golden touch meets crypto’s volatile stage. The PayPal mafia don has a knack for picking winners (Facebook, Palantir), but digital assets play by their own rules. Bullish’s hybrid model—mixing decentralized liquidity with Wall Street-grade infrastructure—could be a game-changer… or a regulatory minefield waiting to explode.

Timing is everything. With Bitcoin clawing back from its 2022 nosedive and institutional money creeping back in, Bullish might just hit the sweet spot. Then again, SEC chair Gary Gensler still wakes up in cold sweat dreaming about unregistered securities—good luck with that S-1 filing.

One cynical footnote: At $4.2B, this would value Bullish at roughly 14,000x the average crypto trader’s annual losses. Now that’s what we call disruptive innovation.

Key Takeaways

Crypto exchange Bullish has filed for a $629 million IPO at a $4.2 billion valuation. This has piqued the interest of BlackRock and ARK, who may buy $200 million worth of shares. 

Cryptocurrency exchange Bullish, backed by billionaire investor Peter Thiel, has officially entered the IPO arena with the filing of its F-1 registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The company plans to offer 20.3 million ordinary shares at a price range of $28 to $31, potentially raising up to $629 million.

If fully subscribed, the IPO could value the firm between $3.8 billion and $4.2 billion.

The filing follows Bullish’s earlier confidential submission in June, a common route that allows firms to quietly prepare for listing while keeping key financials under wraps until the final stages.

What the Bullish IPO entails

Bullish’s IPO push, with JPMorgan and Jefferies as lead underwriters, comes at a time when digital assets are regaining momentum and investor sentiment is shifting positively.

This also aligns with Circle Internet Group’s impressive public debut, where shares of the USDC stablecoin issuer soared over 500%, highlighting growing market appetite for crypto firms.

Bullish appears to be capitalizing on this momentum, kicking off its IPO roadshow shortly after the U.S. passed the GENIUS Act.

This newly introduced but still untested law offers clearer regulatory pathways for stablecoin issuers.

CEO Tom Farley addressed this backdrop in a letter included with the filing, saying, 

“We now intend to IPO because we believe that the digital assets industry is beginning its next leg of growth. We view transparency and compliance as hallmarks of how we operate Bullish, and believe those values align well with the public capital markets.”

Major investment firms like BlackRock and ARK Investment Management have expressed interest in buying up to $200 million of Bullish shares, according to the updated F-1 filing.

Other firms join the show

The Bullish IPO is part of a broader wave of ambitions in crypto.

Major exchanges like OKX, Kraken, and Gemini are also signaling readiness to go public, with Gemini having already submitted a confidential filing.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin [BTC] maxi Michael Saylor continues to double down on his crypto thesis through his firm Strategy Inc. (formerly MicroStrategy) via a Wall Street IPO to fund further Bitcoin purchases.