CoinDesk Owner Bullish Seeks Up To $629 Million In IPO
BlackRock Inc. and ARK Investment Management are separately interested in buying as much as $200 million of shares in aggregate at the IPO price.
Bullish, a digital-asset exchange operator and owner of media outlet CoinDesk, is looking to raise as much as $629.3 million in its US initial public offering.
The Cayman Islands-based company plans to market 20.3 million shares for $28 to $31 each, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. At the top of that range, Bullish would have a market value of about $4.2 billion based on the outstanding shares listed in its filing.
BlackRock Inc. and ARK Investment Management are separately interested in buying as much as $200 million of shares in aggregate at the IPO price, the filing shows. The shares are expected to price Aug. 12, according to a marketing presentation.
More crypto companies have been choosing to go public through IPOs, blank-check mergers or reverse takeovers as the Trump administration has embraced the industry and crypto legislation has moved through Congress. Crypto filings have also increased since stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group Inc. saw its stock rise as much as 750% above the IPO price in the first month following its $1.2 billion first-time share sale in June.
Bullish announced in 2021 that it planned to go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, in a deal that would have valued the combined firm at about $9 billion. The merger was scrapped in 2022.
Bullish, which counts former New York Stock Exchange president Tom Farley as its chief executive officer, offers crypto spot trading, margin trading and derivatives trading, with a focus on institutional investors, the filing shows. Its margins and derivatives products aren’t currently available in the US or to US users.
The company also offers liquidity services for stablecoin issuers. It bought CoinDesk, which provides market data and indexes in addition to its media operations, in 2023 from Digital Currency Group for $72.6 million.
The company had a net loss of about $348.6 million on digital-asset sales of $80.2 million in the three months ending March 31, compared with net income of $104.8 million on $80.4 million of sales in the same period a year earlier, according to the filing.
The firm was formerly a subsidiary of Block.one, which reduced its shareholding in the company below 50% in July 2024, the filing shows. Bullish’s biggest investors include its co-founder, Block.one CEO Brendan Blumer, who is expected to own 30.1% of the shares following the offering. Bullish board member Kokuei Yuan is set to have 26.7% of the shares, according to the filing.
The offering is being led by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Jefferies Financial Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. The company plans to make its debut on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BLSH.
