Bullish, a crypto exchange backed by Peter Thiel, just made financial history in the U.S. The company completed a $1.15 billion initial public offering, or IPO. What made it unique? The entire deal was settled using stablecoins. This marks a new chapter for how digital money can interact with traditional stock markets.
Most of these digital tokens were created on the Solana network. This shows how important this particular blockchain system is becoming for big money moves.
Jefferies, a billing and delivery agent, handled the entire process. They managed minting, converting, and settling the stablecoins. Bullish mainly received USDC and EURC from Circle, a well-known stablecoin issuer.
David Bonanno, Bullish’s Chief Financial Officer, highlighted the strategy behind this choice. He called stablecoins “transformative.” He noted that Bullish uses them internally for fast and secure global transfers, especially on the Solana network.
Last week, Bullish issued 30 million shares. Each share was priced at $37. This raised $1.10 billion before the company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, known as NYSE. When shares of BLSH debuted, investors showed strong interest. The stock price shot up over 150% on its first trading day. This jump shows how much appetite there is for crypto companies going public. It also points to a more welcoming environment for the crypto sector in the U.S.
The company’s official statement listed all the stablecoins involved. Besides USDC and EURC, these included USDG from Paxos, PYUSD from PayPal, RLUSD from Ripple, AUSD from Agora, and USD1 from World Liberty Financial. World Liberty Financial has known political ties to the Trump administration.
Interestingly, Coinbase acted as the custodian for these stablecoins. Coinbase is a direct rival to Bullish. It was also the first crypto exchange to go public back in 2021. This collaboration highlights how even competitors can play key roles in major industry deals.
Bullish isn’t the only crypto firm looking to enter public markets. Other exchanges like Gemini and Kraken are reportedly planning to list shares. Companies like Bitgo are also said to be preparing for public trading.
Bonanno stressed that Bullish wants to make the stablecoin ecosystem stronger. He believes their work with the stablecoin issuers involved in this IPO proves this point. The infrastructure built by Bullish helps these issuers power their own businesses. The news about this groundbreaking IPO was first reported by The Block.