Everything You Need to Know About Bullish Exchange AllinCrypto August 14, 2025
Launched in 2021 as a subsidiary of Block.One, Bullish was conceived as an institutional-focused cryptocurrency exchange.
The exchange gained $10 billion in digital assets and cash investments from angel investors such as Peter Thiel’s Thiel Capital and Founders Fund, including allocations of Bitcoin, funded by Block.one
As of August 13, 2025, the exchange has gone public with an IPO on the NYSE, pushing the company’s market capitalization over $5.4 billion. What is Bullish Exchange, and what does the firm stand for?
High-Caliber Backers Fuel Bullish
Peter Thiel’s involvement elevated Bullish’s credibility. As co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, Thiel’s support may have helped Bullish gain $10B in initial investments, making them the most well-funded crypto exchanges.
Alongside Thiel, other prominent names such as Galaxy Digital, Alan Howard, and Louis Bacon invested capital into the young exchange back in 2021.
Several of these investors also took on senior advisory roles, reinforcing Bullish’s strategic and regulatory positioning.
Bullish Global has been capitalized with over US$10 billion in cash and digital assets following an initial injection by Block.one of US$100 million, 164,000 BTC, and 20 million EOS, and through the completion of an additional US$300 million strategic investment round.
Among the renowned investors leading the capital raise were Peter Thiel’s Thiel Capital and Founders Fund, Alan Howard, Louis Bacon, Richard Li, Christian Angermayer, Galaxy Digital, and global investment bank Nomura.
Bullish Exchange is currently led by former New York Stock Exchange president Tom Farley, who now acts as Bullish’s CEO. Faryley’s existing connections to Wall Street have benefitted Bullish’s momentum.
Bullish IPO: $BLSH
Bullish’s model is built on its exchange platform designed for institutional use, which offers deep order books, high liquidity, automated market making, lending, and advanced portfolio management tools.
The firm’s 2023 acquisition of CoinDesk gave Bullish control over one of the largest crypto news providers. By mid-2025, the company had filed an S-1 with the SEC, targeting approximately $629 million in proceeds and a valuation near $4 billion, based on an offering of around 20.3 million shares priced around $28 – $31.
The filing disclosed Bullish Exchange’s strong fundamentals, boasting $302 million in 2023 revenue, with large holdings of Bitcoin, EOS, and USD assets.
Bullish’s institutional market positioning with low-fee structures and a stable revenue base differentiated it from retail-centric exchanges like Binance and Coinbase.
Plans to convert a meaningful portion of IPO proceeds into stablecoins also showcased a new type of strategy that other exchanges have not considered, aligning the exchange with current regulatory trends and taking advantage of the US’s openness to stablecoins.
On August 13, 2025, Bullish made its debut on the NYSE as $BLSH. With 30 million shares offered, the IPO price of $37 saw Bullish raise $1.1B, valuing the company at around $5.41 billion.
Bullish shares began trading at $90 before quickly climbing to an intraday peak of $118, a price pump of around +215%.
What’s Driving Bullish’s Momentum?
Bullish’s institutional focus from the get-go gives Bullish a unique appeal to Wall Street investors seeking maturity and crypto exposure outside of Brian Armstrong’s Coinbase (COIN).
Experienced leadership, including former NYSE President Tom Farley, may have contributed to investor confidence in the company’s ability to navigate the current public markets.
Many investors believe Wall Street is going through a “crypto summer” with crypto-related stocks and IPOs outperforming, fueled by an improved regulatory arena for crypto.
If sustained, Bullish’s success could pave the way for further mainstream adoption by validating crypto infrastructure firms in the eyes of traditional investors and regulators.
Over time, more crypto firms may decide to go public, with Kraken Exchange and the Winklevoss twins’ Gemini Exchange set to go public in 2025 or 2026.
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