Text: EeeVee, Jialiu, BlockBeats
Editor: Kaori
On August 12, following Coinbase, the second crypto exchange will officially land on the New York Stock Exchange - Bullish plans to raise approximately $990 million through its initial public offering.
On the surface, this is just another routine crypto debut. The impressive IPOs of companies like Circle and Figma over the past six months, along with Coinbase's inclusion in the S&P 500, have whetted the US stock market's appetite for crypto companies.
The debut of Bullish seems to be a continuation of this trend, and may even be the most ostentatious one. This exchange, with $3 billion in assets on its books, has not only received strong support from top investors such as Peter Thiel, Alan Howard, and SoftBank, but has also acquired the crypto media giant CoinDesk, firmly holding the industry's most influential "microphone." Its CEO, Tom Farley, was once the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange.
The strong background and halo made investors' demand for Bullish's IPO "particularly strong", causing Bullish to increase its fundraising scale from US$629 million to US$990 million on the eve of its IPO.
But beneath Bullish's impressive resume lies a story that will shake up the crypto world's memories: the whereabouts of huge financing, the rift between the community and capital, and an abandoned public chain - EOS.
Li Xiaolai, the "evangelist" of EOS, once wrote on his WeChat Moments on August 10, 2018, "Let's look at EOS again in seven years." Ironically, seven years later, what the community saw was not the growth of EOS, but the glorious bell ringing of Bullish - a company that has nothing to do with EOS.
$4.2 billion betrayal
If I were to describe the relationship between Bullish and EOS in one sentence, it would probably be this: former and current, they understand each other tacitly, but it is difficult for them to sit at the same table anymore.
After news of Bullish's secret IPO filing broke, the price of the EOS token surged by 17%, creating the illusion of a rekindled relationship. However, the EOS community viewed this slight surge as ironic. Block.one, the original operator, had long since switched sides and embraced Bullish, leaving EOS in its current state—and at the expense of its decline.
The story begins in 2017. Back then, the public blockchain industry was enjoying its golden age. White papers served as entry points, and visions were the ultimate fundraising tool. Block.one launched EOS with the promise of "millions of TPS, zero fees," instantly attracting a global influx of investors.
In 2018, it raised $4.2 billion through ICO, setting a new record for financing in the crypto industry, and EOS was also dubbed the "Ethereum Terminator."
However, the myth crumbled faster than expected. Shortly after the mainnet launched, users discovered an insurmountable gap between reality and the white paper: transfers required staking CPU and RAM, resulting in a cumbersome process and high barriers to entry. Node elections, far from the anticipated "decentralized democracy," quickly devolved into a voting game for large investors and exchanges.
Technological defects are only superficial; the deeper cracks come from the uneven distribution of resources.
Although Block.one pledged to invest $1 billion to support the EOS ecosystem, $2.2 billion of the $4.2 billion in financing was ultimately used to purchase U.S. Treasury bonds to lock in low-risk returns. It was also used for investment attempts such as stock speculation, the acquisition of Silvergate (which went bankrupt in 2023), and the purchase of the Voice domain name.
The amount of money actually flowing into the EOS developer ecosystem is embarrassingly small.
The final straw that broke the EOS community’s patience was the appearance of Bullish in 2021. Block.one announced the launch of this new crypto trading platform, raising $1 billion in funding, yet it had no connection to the EOS technology ecosystem. It did not use the EOS chain, did not support EOS tokens, and did not acknowledge any relationship with EOS, not even a token of thanks.
The EOS community viewed this as a blatant betrayal: Block.one, having raised vast sums of money through EOS, then launched a new venture, a stunning pivot. EOS was left behind, deprived of its resources and spotlight.
Since then, the community has fought back repeatedly, attempting to reclaim funds and governance rights through negotiations and lawsuits. Although Block.one was ultimately expelled from EOS management, ownership and control of the funds remain firmly in Block.one's hands.
In the eyes of old users who have experienced the ups and downs of EOS, Bullish has never been a new project that has nothing to do with them, but a coronation in exchange for their ideals - gorgeous, expensive, but embarrassing.
Bullish raises $1 billion in financing, a new starting point
Bullish, which was born out of the shattered EOS dream, initially received support from Block.one with a $100 million cash injection.
It also attracted a number of well-known investors such as Peter Thiel and Alan Howard (investors in FTX and Polygon), as well as top venture capital firms such as Galaxy Digital, DCG and SoftBank to join the investment camp, making the lineup luxurious.
This gave Bullish an initial capital of $1 billion in its early stages, far exceeding its competitor Kraken, which only raised $65 million in its seed and Series A rounds.
Since 2021, Bullish's core business has revolved around its exchange. Leveraging its innovative hybrid liquidity model (a combination of CLOB and AMM), Bullish is able to offer low trading spreads in high-liquidity environments while maintaining stable market depth in low-liquidity environments.
This technological innovation quickly gained favor with institutional clients, enabling Bullish to successfully become the fifth largest crypto exchange in the world.
While steadily growing its exchange business, Bullish acquired CoinDesk, a leading global crypto media platform, in 2023, further consolidating its influence in the industry. CoinDesk's monthly unique visitors reached 4.96 million in 2024.
Bullish also launched CoinDesk Indices and acquired CCData in 2024, leveraging the strengths of both in data services to help its institutional clients track the performance of digital assets and provide market data insights.
Bullish has also established Bullish Capital, its venture capital arm. Through this arm, Bullish is able to invest in innovative crypto projects. These investments not only generate potential returns for Bullish but also help it maintain its industry leadership and diversify its portfolio. Currently, Bullish Capital has invested in several well-known crypto projects, including Ether.fi, Babylon, and Wingbits.
In terms of financial performance, Bullish's current revenue source is still relatively single, with spot trading revenue from its exchange accounting for 70% to 80% of its total revenue.
According to the prospectus, Bullish reported a net loss of $349 million in the first quarter of 2025, a loss primarily attributed to a sharp decline in the fair value of the company's holdings of crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
In terms of other income, Coindesk's revenue has achieved significant growth. In the first quarter of 2025, CoinDesk's subscription revenue reached US$20 million, an increase of more than 100% year-on-year from US$9 million in the same period of 2024.
This growth was driven in part by $9 million in sponsorship revenue from the Consensus Hong Kong 2025 conference held in Hong Kong in February 2025.
Compared to its main competitors, Coinbase and Kraken, Bullish's revenue and profits are slightly inferior. Starting in 2022, Coinbase's revenue has almost always been more than 20 times that of Bullish. In addition, Kraken's total revenue of $1.5 billion in 2024 is also far higher than Bullish's $214 million in the same period.
In terms of business data, Bullish's spot trading volume has grown significantly. In the first quarter of 2025, Bullish's trading volume of US$79.9 billion even slightly exceeded Coinbase.
This trading volume is comparable to that of leading exchanges, but the revenue lags significantly behind, mainly because Bullish proactively lowered the trading spread.
"The strategic measure of tightening spreads has enhanced our competitive position and captured a larger market share," according to the prospectus. In 2024, Bullish's global spot trading volume market share for BTC and ETH increased by 10% and 37%, respectively, and in 2023, it increased by 31% and 189%, respectively.
However, the prospects for this strategy of expanding market share by relying on compressed spreads are not optimistic.
On the one hand, with the gradual influx of institutional investors, the market has gradually matured, and transactions have become more concentrated on leading assets such as BTC, resulting in narrowing volatility.
On the other hand, the launch of ETFs has further intensified competition among exchanges. These changes will compress market trading spreads, further affecting Bullish’s profitability and competitive advantage.
Faced with increasingly fierce market competition, Bullish's competitive strategy is similar to that of leading exchanges such as Coinbase - using the derivatives market and acquisitions to develop a secondary growth curve:
"We expect to achieve growth in the future by expanding our product offerings, particularly options products, to meet the ongoing demand from stable, high-value institutional clients. We will also continue to leverage our scale, assets, and expertise to acquire companies that fit our business lines."
A valuation of 4.8 billion, is it "low-key" or is there another plan?
Bullish's confidence in spending huge sums on future acquisitions is largely due to the $4.2 billion raised by Block.one through the EOS ICO in 2018, a financing event that went down in the history of cryptocurrencies.
In addition to allocating a large amount of funds to stable U.S. Treasury bonds and sporadic equity investments, Block.one also purchased 160,000 bitcoins in the early days.
This move has made it the private company with the largest cryptocurrency holdings in the world, holding 40,000 more than the stablecoin giant Tether.
As of the first quarter of 2025, Bullish's balance sheet also appears to be substantial: total assets exceed $3 billion, including 24,000 Bitcoin (about $2.8 billion), 12,600 Ethereum, and $418 million in cash and stablecoins.
In comparison, Coinbase's Bitcoin reserves in the second quarter of the same year were only 11,776, with a market value of approximately US$1.3 billion - this means that in terms of BTC holdings alone, Bullish is almost twice that of Coinbase.
This wealth of assets made Bullish's $4.8 billion IPO valuation somewhat understated. On August 11th, the company significantly increased its offering plan at the last minute—raising the price range from $28-31 per share to $32-33 per share and increasing the offering size from 20.3 million shares to 30 million shares—directly responding to the market's enthusiastic demand.
According to the prospectus, BlackRock and ARK Investment Management will subscribe for US$200 million of shares at the IPO issue price, adding fuel to the market enthusiasm.
But behind the enthusiasm lies another set of rules. Less than 15% of the IPO's shares are currently circulating, with the vast majority still firmly in the hands of major shareholders and early investors. Low liquidity suggests scarcity, and scarcity suggests a potential "buy-and-hold" frenzy on the first day, undoubtedly tempting short-term investors.
As Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, commented on bullish IPOs: "Bankers prefer to leave some wiggle room on valuations and move up from a low valuation, rather than overpricing from the outset and dampening market enthusiasm."
However, the flip side of low liquidity is a potential selling time bomb. Once the lock-up period ends, if major shareholders and early investors cash out, the market could easily experience a chain reaction of increased liquidity and falling stock prices.
The crypto market has seen similar scenarios too many times in this cycle.
It's also worth noting that this isn't Bullish's first attempt at capital markets. Back in 2021, at the peak of the crypto bull market, it planned to go public through a merger with the SPAC Far Peak Acquisition Corporation at a valuation of $9 billion. However, regulatory uncertainty and market volatility brought the plan to a halt in 2022.
Today, Bitcoin has once again hit its historical high of $120,000. Crypto companies such as Circle have tested the temperature of the capital market with successful IPOs. Bullish is once again hitting the New York Stock Exchange with a valuation almost halved and a more sophisticated strategy.
Can this combination of "valuation reduction + liquidity tightening + bull market timing" add another significant value to Block.one's already strong book assets?
However, for investors who know the EOS story, there may be a more important revelation - don’t love such a company for too long, so as to avoid the final outcome repeating the fate of the EOS community.
