Block.one's crypto exchange Bullish raises $75M from SoftBank's SB Northstar, as it prepares to go public through a SPAC merger
Context & Ripple Effects
Block.one unveiled Bullish in May 2021, capitalized by roughly $10B in digital assets and cash (about $10B of Block.one capital), and within weeks lined up a SPAC merger at a $9B valuation to take the exchange public. The PitchBook data circulating the same month counted $17B invested in crypto startups year-to-date, making Bullish one of the best-funded launches of the cycle.
SB Northstar's $75M check lands just before the merger closes, giving SoftBank a pre-listing stake in the exchange — notable because SoftBank had only filed its own SPAC vehicle six months earlier, planning a $525M raise.
First-order effects
- SB Northstar converts $75M into Bullish equity at the pre-merger stage, adding a marquee backer to the deal's syndicate ahead of the listing.
- Bullish enters its public-market debut with validation beyond Block.one's own capital, which matters given the exchange was funded almost entirely in-house until now.
Second-order effects
- SoftBank's involvement pulls its broader ecosystem toward crypto listings — an entity that filed to launch its own SPAC now buying into someone else's SPAC-bound target rather than waiting for its own pipeline.
- Other heavily capitalized crypto startups face a higher bar for launch credibility, since Bullish's template pairs ~$10B of internal capitalization with outside institutional money before trading even begins.
Third-order effects
- The arc from the 2021 SPAC pricing to Bullish's eventual $1.1B IPO at a $5.4B valuation in 2025 suggests SPAC-era marks did not survive contact with conventional IPO markets — late-cycle private valuations getting repriced downward years later.
- If that pattern holds across the 2021 cohort, the durable lesson is that exchange businesses ultimately clear the market through traditional offerings, with SPACs serving as interim liquidity events rather than final price discovery.
The trend: The 2021 crypto funding boom pushed exchanges to convert private capitalization into public listings via SPACs, with SoftBank-style crossover investors buying stakes before the merger closes.