Crypto exchange operator Bullish seeks to raise $629M in IPO

Bullish US LLC, the operator of an eponymous cryptocurrency exchange, has priced its upcoming initial public offering.

The Cayman Islands-based company, backed by investor Peter Thiel, originally filed for an IPO in mid-July without disclosing the financial terms. In an amended filing submitted today, Bullish revealed that it hopes to sell 20.3 million shares for $28 to $31 apiece. At the top end of the range, the offering would fetch $629 million and value the company at $4.2 billion.

The banks underwriting the listing have the option to buy 3 million more shares at the IPO price. That could potentially boost Bullish’s proceeds from the listing by $93 million. If investor demand for the IPO proves larger than initially expected, the company may increase the number of shares sold and their price. 

Bullish operates the Bullish Exchange, a cryptocurrency trading platform geared toward institutional investors. The company says that it processed $647 billion worth of spot trades during the first quarter alone. A spot trade is a transaction in which an investor purchases assets at the current market price.

Bullish allows users to purchase Bitcoin, Ether and other popular digital assets along with crypto futures. A future is a contract that obligates an investor to buy assets at a pre-defined future date for a pre-defined price. If that price is lower than the asset’s market rate at the date specified in the contract, the investor earns a return.

Alongside its core trading platform, Bullish offers a subscription-based liquidity service. The offering provides investors with funds that they can use to make trades. In today’s updated IPO filing, Bullish detailed that the liquidity service is the fastest-growing part of its business.

The company’s third major revenue source is its CoinDesk subsidiary, which it obtained through a 2023 acquisition. CoinDesk operates a cryptocurrency publication, indices tied to popular digital assets and a cloud service that provides cryptocurrency trading data. 

“Bullish provides this infrastructure and the necessary services for institutional customers, and we do so while intentionally avoiding potential conflicts of interest with our customers,” Bullish Chief Executive Officer Tom Farley wrote in the company’s IPO filing. “For example, Bullish does not plan to launch our own digital assets, nor do we intend to build public blockchains or engage in other types of direct competition.”

The company estimates that it earned between $106 million and $109 million in net income during the second quarter. On the top end of the range, that’s $29 million more than its entire 2024 profit. Bullish’s liquid assets, which include 24,000 bitcoins, 12,600 ether and various other cryptocurrencies, were worth more than $3 billion as of March.

The company plans to accelerate its growth efforts after going public. Bullish will make its exchange available in more international markets, as well as add support for crypto options trading. The company also intends to expand CoinDesk’s product portfolio. 

Bullish will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “BLSH.”

Image: Unsplash