From Circle to Bullish: 2025 Becomes a “Bellwether” Year for Crypto IPOs
This year marked perhaps the biggest surge of crypto companies hitting public markets since Coinbase’s headline Nasdaq debut in 2021. A renewed retail appetite for crypto, friendlier political winds, and a reopening of the U.S. IPO pipeline combined to push exchanges, trading platforms and stablecoin issuers onto stock exchanges in quick succession — prompting outlets like Reuters and Barron’s to describe a renewed “rush to Wall Street” for crypto listings.
Why this year mattered
For much of the post-2021 era, crypto companies chasing public listings often tried to use SPACs (special purpose acquisition companies) — blank-check vehicles that merge with private firms to take them public without a traditional IPO — with mixed results. Many SPAC deals announced in 2021 petered out as markets turned in 2022. In 2025, however, several high-profile crypto firms that had earlier abandoned SPAC plans returned to the public-market spotlight and completed IPOs, turning the year into what NYSE President Lynn Martin called “a bellwether for the IPO markets this year, not just for crypto listings.”
Notable debuts and market drama
- Circle (USDC issuer): After an aborted 2021 SPAC tie-up with Concord Acquisition Corp. — a deal that once implied a valuation of up to $9 billion but was terminated in late 2022 — Circle finally listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2025. Investor demand was intense: trading was halted three times in the first hour. Since the debut, however, momentum has tempered as Federal Reserve rate cuts raise investor concerns about the yield on cash reserves that back USDC, which in turn could affect Circle’s earnings profile.
- Bullish (crypto exchange): Bullish also made a splash when it went public in August, seeing its share price surge. Like Circle, it had previously announced plans to go public in 2021 via a SPAC but abandoned the deal at the end of 2022, citing timing and market conditions.
- eToro: Although not a pure crypto company, trading platform eToro enjoyed a strong Nasdaq debut in May that pushed its valuation to roughly $5.4 billion. The firm had curtailed some crypto services after a 2024 SEC settlement but currently lists about 82 crypto assets.
Companies still lining up
Not every firm has publicly filed or completed a listing. Kraken filed for an IPO after closing an $800 million raise in November that put its valuation around $20 billion; the exchange has said it’s ready to list as soon as the SEC finishes its review and market conditions permit. FalconX has been reported to be considering an IPO, though there’s been no official confirmation or SEC filing. Other notable names — BitGo, Grayscale, Blockchain.com and others — have at various points explored or publicly discussed IPO plans as market sentiment improved.
What comes next
If 2025 signaled crypto’s return to the public markets, it may have also laid the groundwork for a larger wave of listings in the near term. With several heavyweights preparing filings or publicly signaling intent, the pipeline looks deeper than in recent years — but success will hinge on macro conditions, SEC scrutiny and investor appetite for crypto exposure going forward.
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