Peter Thiel-backed crypto exchange Bullish files for NYSE debut

Bullish, the crypto exchange backed by Peter Thiel, filed to go public on Friday, according to documents reviewed from the company’s IPO registration.

The platform, which was launched as a spinout of Block.one, wants to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BLSH, marking another step in crypto’s growing push into traditional equity markets. The filing was submitted by Tom Farley, the firm’s CEO and former president of the NYSE.

Tom now leads Bullish as it aims to scale beyond the private markets it’s been operating in. The IPO filing also revealed raw numbers.

As of March 31, Bullish has processed over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume since launching. In the first quarter of 2025 alone, it reported $2.5 billion in average daily volume, which places it in the top five exchanges globally for spot Bitcoin and Ether trades. That’s based on internal data provided directly by the company.

Bullish builds on big names, big volumes, and big politics

The exchange started with cash from Founders Fund, Thiel Capital, Nomura, Mike Novogratz, and others. In 2023, Bullish bought crypto news outlet CoinDesk, adding media muscle to its platform. It now competes directly with Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken, as noted in the public prospectus.

Tom didn’t comment directly in the filing, but the document did include a line from Bullish’s leadership that read: “In the first quarter of 2025, Bullish exchange executed over $2.5 billion in average daily volume, ranking in the top five exchanges by spot volume for Bitcoin and Ether.”

This year has already seen multiple crypto companies try to grab a piece of the public market. Circle, the stablecoin issuer, went public in June and its valuation has climbed more than sevenfold since. In May, Etoro also debuted with a platform that allows users to trade crypto assets.

Novogratz’s own company, Galaxy Digital, migrated its listing from Toronto to the Nasdaq. Meanwhile, Gemini, the exchange created by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, quietly filed for its own U.S. IPO last month.

Bitcoin hasn’t been sitting still either. It’s currently trading above $117,000, a major jump from the $94,000 range it was hovering around at the start of 2025. Capital is still pouring into the sector, and that momentum is giving firms like Bullish more leverage when approaching public markets.

On the regulatory side, President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law on the same day as Bullish’s IPO filing. The act introduces new stablecoin regulations to protect consumers. These digital tokens are supposed to be pegged to things like the U.S. dollar and are marketed as less volatile alternatives to regular crypto.

Bullish’s SEC filing made its intentions clear: the company said it aims to “drive the adoption of stablecoins, crypto, and blockchain technology.” That wording wasn’t a throwaway. It’s directly tied to the bigger political forces backing this entire move.

Thiel, Elon Musk, and David Sacks, who currently leads Trump’s AI and crypto strategy team, have all dumped massive funding into Trump’s reelection campaign. They’ve also pushed hard for laws that formally legitimize crypto exchanges and assets at the federal level.

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