Bullish Smashes Records with $1.1B NYSE IPO—Oversubscribed and Overdelivering

Wall Street's appetite for crypto just got a $1.1 billion proof point.

Bullish—the digital assets exchange backed by heavyweights like Peter Thiel and Mike Novogratz—just closed an oversubscribed IPO, punching its ticket to the NYSE. The demand? So fierce it'd make a meme-stock trader blush.

The Big Takeaway:
Institutional money isn't just dipping toes in crypto anymore—it's cannonballing into the deep end.

The Cynic's Corner:
Because nothing says 'decentralized future' like a traditional exchange listing. (Bonus points for the irony.)

One thing's clear: When the suits start buying, the game changes. Whether that's good for crypto? Well—that's the billion-dollar question.

Bullish IPO rides momentum from Trump’s new stablecoin law 

Two heavyweight firms, BlackRock and ARK Investment Management, stepped in with interest to buy up to $200 million worth of shares between them. That figure came straight from the company’s latest SEC filings. It’s still unclear how much either firm actually bought, but the interest was official.

This public debut wasn’t the original game plan. Bullish first tried to go public in 2021 through a SPAC merger that would’ve given it a $9 billion valuation. That attempt fell through in 2022, and the deal never progressed.

Now, Tom Farley, who used to be the president of the New York Stock Exchange, is the firm’s CEO.

The company doesn’t just deal in crypto exchange services. It also owns CoinDesk, the crypto news platform. In its official filings, Bullish said it provides spot, margin, and derivatives trading, and targets institutional investors specifically.

Ownership is still concentrated. Brendan Blumer, the CEO of Block.one and a Bullish co-founder, will hold on to 30.1% of the company after the IPO. Kokuei Yuan, a board member, is expected to own 26.7%. That means two people together control more than half the company.

JPMorgan, Jefferies, and Citigroup led the offering. Bullish is scheduled to start trading on Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BLSH.

In July, President Donald Trump signed a federal law to regulate stablecoins, finally giving legal structure to dollar-pegged crypto. This move followed years of lobbying from crypto firms. That win gave companies like Bullish more confidence going into public markets.

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