Cryptocurrency exchange operator Bullish (BLSH) closed its first day of trading at $70 on Wednesday, up just under 90% from where the company priced its IPO and valuing the company at more than $10 billion.
Still, this marked a more than 20% drop from where the stock opened for trade.
Bullish stock opened for trade at $90 near 1:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, and the stock traded hands as high as $118 per share shortly after, a more than 215% gain. The stock was halted for trade due to volatility at least twice within the first few minutes of trading.
The company, which operates a crypto exchange and owns the prominent trade publication CoinDesk, priced its IPO at $37 per share on Tuesday, above the $32 to $33 range the company had expected in its second shot at making a public market debut.
Bullish began its IPO processes looking for a price between $28 to $31 per share. At 30 million shares offered, the IPO price saw Bullish raise $1.1 billion and value the fintech company at $5.41 billion.
Bullish first attempted to go public via a SPAC merger in 2021 that would have valued the company at $9 billion, but the deal fell through after regulatory scrutiny and Bullish withdrew its registration.
The company’s debut rode the outsized success of recent go-publics like Figma (FIG) and Circle (CRCL) and serve as the latest sign that the IPO window remains wide open after a few challenging years for investors.
Through Wednesday, 2025 has so far seen 133 IPOs come to market worth more than $50 million, up more than 58% from the same time last year, according to IPO tracker and ETF operator Renaissance Capital.
Ahead of its IPO, Bullish also garnered major institutional interest. Asset management giant BlackRock and Cathie Wood’s investment firm fund Ark Invest expressed interest in purchasing up to $200 million worth of shares in the offering, according to securities filings.
“We now intend to IPO because we believe that the digital assets industry is beginning its next leg of growth,” said Bullish CEO Thomas Farley, previously COO and president of the NYSE Group, in a letter to investors about Bullish’s offering.
“I believe that the digital assets industry is at the inflection point of institutional adoption and Bullish is uniquely positioned at the center of this market. The compliant, institutional- focused market infrastructure model is time-tested and works, and Bullish is proud to be the one bringing this proven framework to the crypto landscape.”
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