Crypto exchange Bullish more than doubles in NYSE debut after pricing IPO above expected range
The stock opened at $90 on the New York Stock Exchange, 143% above its IPO price of $37. Shares were then halted at around $102.44 per share.
The Cayman Islands-headquartered company priced its IPO early Wednesday far above this week's expected range of $32 to $33, and an initial range last week of between $28 and $31, valuing the company at some $5.4 billion before trading began.
Bullish, which is led by former New York Stock Exchange President Tom Farley and backed by tech billionaire Peter Thiel, is a crypto exchange focused on institutional investors and blends decentralized finance protocols with the security of a centralized company.
"The last leg of growth in crypto, the last 10 years, was basically all retail and … the institutional wave has begun," Farley told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" Wednesday. "It's here, and it's a question of how big it will be. Based on the reception we've gotten thus far as part of our IPO, it feels like institutional investors feel like this could be the moment."
Since its launch in 2021, total trading volume on the Bullish platform exceeded $1.25 trillion as of March 31. The company also owns the crypto news website CoinDesk, which includes crypto indexes, data and analytics.
Bullish joins a batch of companies looking to take advantage of the Trump administration's favorable attitude toward crypto. In June, stablecoin issuer Circle made a highly successful stock market debut, raising more than $1 billion. That followed the transfer to Nasdaq (from Toronto) of Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital and stock and crypto trading app eToro's IPO that valued it at $5.4 billion. Crypto custody startup BitGo and crypto exchange Gemini have also confidentially filed for U.S. listings.
This is the second attempt by Bullish to go public in the four years since the company launched.
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