Bullish’s real-deal crypto journey started with a bang and ended with a reminder that crypto names still like to swing wild. The Bullish Exchange rose about 12% before the bell to around $78, doubling its IPO price of $37 and giving the company a little over $10 billion in value. But even with that early push, the stock closed the day about 16% below its intraday high. If you were watching the tape, you saw a classic crypto stock dance: big intraday moves, a few halts, and a crowd trying to balance hype with the reality of risk.

Pricing-wise, Bullish did the dance right this time, setting the IPO price at $37 on Tuesday after steering through a broader $32–$33 range. With 30 million shares offered, the deal raised roughly $1.1 billion, valuing the fintech around $5.4 billion at launch. This is the “second time’s the charm” moment after the 2021 SPAC plan that fell apart under regulatory scrutiny. 

The mood in the market? Investor appetite for new issues is waking up again, especially for high-growth, crypto-adjacent players that promise infrastructure and institutional appeal.

Around the same time, the broader IPO scene was flirting with a comeback. Through Wednesday, 2025 had already handed us about 133 IPOs bigger than $50 million, totaling more than $50 billion—roughly 58% more than last year at the same point, per Renaissance Capital. Big-name pre-IPO thirst from BlackRock and Ark Invest—each signaling up to $200 million in potential buys—helped cushion the narrative that crypto names can land with serious institutional interest, even if the underlying volatility keeps nudging the risk dial.

CEO Thomas Farley jumped in with the growth story: this isn’t just a one-off listing, it’s a bet on the next leg of institutional adoption for digital assets. Bullish’s core is the Bullish Exchange—an institution-focused spot and derivatives platform—and Q1 volumes averaged about $2.6 billion daily, a number that suggests real platform traction, not just hype. In the broader crypto backdrop, staunch optimism lingered: Bitcoin and Ethereum were noticeably up year to date, XRP jockeyed higher too, all feeding a risk-on mood that helps these IPOs land with a bit more swagger.

Bullish’s debut nudges us to rethink the idea that the crypto IPO window is forever closed. The market’s reception shows that institutions are willing to engage publicly, as long as the deal comes with credible growth prospects, a solid compliance backbone, and a plan that isn’t just “more hype.” For investors, the takeaway is nuanced: first-day pop is exciting, but the true test will be execution, regulatory clarity, and whether Bullish can sustain demand for its institution-focused platform as crypto markets keep dancing to their own rhythm.