Crypto exchange Bullish, unveiled in May as a subsidiary of Block.one, to go public via a SPAC merger at a $9B valuation
Jamie Crawley / CoinDesk :
Context & Ripple Effects
Bullish moved quickly from Block.one’s planned exchange launch, backed by about $10B in digital assets and cash, to a proposed public-market transaction. The $9B SPAC valuation set an early benchmark for the business before it had begun operating.
The subsequent coverage records $75M from SoftBank’s SB Northstar and, years later, a $1.1B conventional IPO rather than the proposed SPAC merger. That sequence makes the announcement an early step in Bullish’s longer effort to finance itself through public markets.
First-order effects
- Bullish obtains a proposed route to public listing at a $9B valuation, giving Block.one’s exchange subsidiary a defined capital-markets framework alongside its initial capitalization.
- The SPAC transaction makes the proposed valuation an immediate reference point for Bullish’s investors and prospective public shareholders.
Second-order effects
- Bullish’s public-market plan raises the financing benchmark for the exchange as it prepares to launch, complementing the later $75M investment from SoftBank’s SB Northstar.
- Block.one shifts from solely capitalizing Bullish with digital assets and cash toward using an external public-market vehicle to support the subsidiary’s growth.
Third-order effects
- The eventual move from a proposed SPAC merger to an IPO filing indicates that Bullish’s public-market ambition outlasted the original listing structure, while the preferred route changed.
- For crypto-exchange operators, the pattern points toward capital formation being separated from any single listing mechanism: sponsor-backed mergers and conventional IPOs can serve the same strategic objective.
The trend: Crypto exchanges are pursuing durable access to public equity capital, with listing structures changing as financing conditions and investor appetite evolve.