Bullish Soars 15% In Premarket Trading, ARK Buys $172M Stake

Bullish, the crypto exchange backed by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, surged 15% in premarket trading after soaring as much as 218% on its NYSE debut yesterday, with Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest snapping up a $172 million stake.

The company raised $1.1 billion in the offering, with BlackRock among heavy-weight investors that bought shares.

ARK’s Innovation ETF acquired 1.7 million shares, while its Next Generation Internet and Fintech Innovation ETFs added more than 800,000 combined. Bullish increased its share issuance to 30 million ahead of the IPO to accommodate strong demand.

Trading under the ticker “BLSH,” shares of the company pumped to an intraday high of $118, representing a 218% gain from its $37 IPO price, data from Google Finance shows. 

Bullish stock price (Source: Google Finance)

Ahead of the IPO, Bullish had planned to raise between $568 million and $629 million. Weeks after its initial filing, the firm submitted an updated F-1 document with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that outlined plans to issue 20.3 million shares. This would have valued the company at $4.2 billion.

Closer to the IPO, the company opted to increase the number of shares it would issue to 30 million, citing strong demand from firms such as asset management giant BlackRock and Cathie Wood-led ARK Invest, who both expressed interest in buying up to $200 million worth of shares. 

Ark Invest bought 2,532,693 shares of the Bullish $BLSH IPO today 👀 pic.twitter.com/MXMdF6R8vP

— The Market Matrix (@MarketMatrixs) August 14, 2025

Bullish also granted its underwriter, led by JPMorgan, Citigroup and Jefferies, a 30-day option to sell an additional 4.5 million shares. 

Despite a pullback to close its first trading session off at $68, Bullish stock still ended the day with a gain of over 83%. 

Bullish Failed With 2021 Attempt To Go Public

Bullish had initially planned to go public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in 2021, but the deal fell through.

While it was a setback at the time, that failed IPO might have positioned the company to benefit from the favorable US crypto regulatory environment under President Donald Trump’s administration.

Since Trump entered the White House in January, he has pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, signed an executive order to explore the creation of a US Strategic BTC reserve, and has also delivered on several other campaign promises he made last year. 

In addition to that, regulators have started to act on guidance received by the President’s Working Group on Digital Assets. This includes the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who launched “Project Crypto” to ease licensing requirements, and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), who kicked off its “Crypto Sprint” initiative in recent weeks.

Amid the favorable regulatory environment, institutional investors have also started to buy into Bitcoin and have slowly started exploring altcoins. This follows last year’s launch of spot Bitcoin and spot Ethereum ETFs in the US. Over just the past week, these funds have pulled in billions of dollars combined.

In an interview with CNBC yesterday, Bullish CEO Tom Farley, who is also the former President of the NYSE, commented on the timing of his firm’s IPO.

“It feels like this may be a good time for crypto,” he said, before highlighting the passing of the GENIUS Act and the progress being made on the CLARITY Act. 

“I pledged that we would bring back American liberty and leadership and make the U.S. the crypto capital of the world… The Genius Act creates a clear and simple regulatory framework to establish and unleash the immense promise of dollar-backed stablecoins.” –President Trump pic.twitter.com/F46visJFi8

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 18, 2025

Both of those developments, Farley says, “are providing an easy on-ramp for institutions to drive into crypto.” 

“The last leg of growth in crypto in the last 10 years was basically all retail and if you look now, the institutional wave has begun, it’s here, it’s a question of how big it will be,” he added. 

Commenting on the demand Bullish’s IPO has seen from institutions, Farley said “it feels like institutional investors think this could be the moment.” 

When asked how big he thinks the institutional wave could become, he said that the opportunity is “absolutely gigantic.” 

Bullish Joins Growing List Of Crypto IPOs

Several other firms operating in the crypto space have taken advantage of the improving regulatory landscape in the US in their bid to draw institutional investment.

In June this year, USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle raised approximately $1.1 billion and debuted with a stock price surge of around 168-168.5%. 

In the same month, eToro confidentially filed documents with the SEC for its own IPO, aiming for a valuation of above $5 billion.

Meanwhile, Gemini, the crypto exchange run by the Winklevoss twins, confidentially filed its IPO S-1 form earlier this year, working with major underwriters such as Citigroup, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. Reports suggest the IPO could occur by the end of Q3 this year.

Other firms such as Grayscale Investments, BitGo, Kraken, and OKX have all indicated intentions to list publicly.

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