Shares of crypto exchange Bullish soared Wednesday after the cryptocurrency exchange raised about $1.1 billion in an initial public offering.
The stock opened at $90 on the New York Stock Exchange, 143% above its IPO price of $37. At one point, it rose as high as $118 before closing at $68, a gain of more than 83%.
The 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 almost $5.6 billion before trading began. By day’s end, Bullish had a market value of some $10.25 billion, based on its 150.684 million shares outstanding.
Bullish sold 30 million shares in the IPO, representing 19.9% of its total stock.
Bullish (BLSH) briefly soared more than 140% in its trading debut Wednesday.
Bullish, led by former New York Stock Exchange President Tom Farley and backed by tech billionaire Peter Thiel, focuses 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” on 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 the company’s launch in 2021, total trading volume on the Bullish platform exceeded $1.25 trillion as of March 31. The Cayman Islands-headquartered company also owns the crypto news website CoinDesk, which includes crypto indexes, data and analytics.
Bullish joins a host of companies looking to take advantage of the Trump administration’s favorable attitude toward the crypto industry. In June, stablecoin issuer Circle made a highly successful stock market debut, raising more than $1 billion. That followed the transfer of Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital to the Nasdaq from Toronto, 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.