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Peter Thiel-backed cryptocurrency exchange Bullish surged more than 170 per cent on its market debut after an upsized initial public offering, in a further sign of investors’ strong demand for digital asset stocks.
Bullish priced its shares at $37 and opened at $90 before rallying to $102 on Wednesday afternoon after it began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BLSH following an IPO that raised $1.1bn.
The rally gave the group a market value of about $13bn, and came after Bullish earlier this week raised its targeted price range from $28-$31 to $32-$33. Trading in the shares was halted for volatility shortly after 1pm in New York.
“Public capital markets are demonstrating a desire to invest in crypto-focused companies,” Bullish president Chris Tyrer told the Financial Times, referring also to stablecoin operator Circle Internet’s rally since it listed in June.
Bullish’s IPO comes as the price of bitcoin has surged in recent months to record highs, propelled by US President Donald Trump’s reversal of the crackdown on digital assets led by his predecessor Joe Biden and Gary Gensler, the former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Crypto companies spent hundreds of millions of dollars to sway the 2024 US elections, and Trump’s family is heavily invested in the industry. In July, the US House of Representatives passed legislation to regulate stablecoins, in the first major cryptocurrency legislation approved by Congress.
Bullish counts Thiel, US crypto billionaire Mike Novogratz and British hedge fund manager Alan Howard among its early investors.
Thiel, who donated to Trump’s first election campaign, “is not really involved day to day” with Bullish, Tyrer said.
Several high-profile US IPOs have enjoyed huge first-day rallies in recent weeks, with Circle gaining 168 per cent on its debut and design software maker Figma jumping 250 per cent.
The surges have prompted accusations from investors, including venture capitalist Bill Gurley, that banks underwriting the offerings have mispriced the deals, leaving billions of dollars on the table that could have gone to the companies instead of market gains for traders.
Bullish, which is domiciled in the Cayman Islands, describes itself as an “institutionally-focused” digital asset exchange. Volumes are driven by spot trading by quantitative traders and mid-frequency hedge funds.
It also holds vast quantities of bitcoin and other stablecoins on its balance sheet. It reported a net loss of $349mn in the three months to the end of March from net income of $105mn in the same period last year.
Bullish had attempted to go public through a special purpose acquisition vehicle in 2021, only for the deal to fall through the following year as stock markets fell because of rising US interest rates.
Since 2023 it has owned online crypto magazine CoinDesk, which tracks digital asset prices and provides news and research reports on the state of the industry.
Bullish said in filings with US regulators that about 35 per cent of all bitcoin spot trading took place on its exchange in 2024, excluding offshore exchanges such as Binance.
Tyrer said: “Crypto is an asset class that has cycles. Peaks are peaky and troughs are deep. I don’t think we have yet seen anything that would lead me to believe we’re in a bubble.”
