rewrite this title Crypto exchange Bullish prices IPO at $37 per share, above expected range, ahead of NYSE debut

Cryptocurrency exchange Bullish has priced its initial public offering at $37 per share, above the expected range of $32 to $33 and giving it a total market value of $5.4 billion.

The company will raise $1.1 billion in the offering of 30 million shares. In a measure of increased investor appetite, Bullish expanded the number of shares sold in the IPO from 20.3 million, which were originally proposed to be sold at between $28 and $31 a share.

Bullish granted its underwriters, led by JPMorgan, Jefferies and Citigroup, a 30-day option to sell an additional 4.5 million shares. Bullish shares will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol “BLSH.”

BlackRock and Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment Management have indicated interest in purchasing up to $200 million of the shares.

Bullish, which is led by former New York Stock Exchange President Tom Farley and headquartered in the Cayman Islands, is a cryptocurrency exchange that’s geared toward institutional investors and brings together decentralized finance protocols with the security of a centralized company.

Since its launch in 2021, total trading volume on the Bullish platform exceeded $1.25 trillion as of March 31.

Bullish also owns the crypto news website CoinDesk, which includes crypto indexes, data and analytics.

This is the second attempt by Bullish to go public in the four years since it was introduced. Backers, including billionaire PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, are looking to take advantage of the Trump administration’s favorable attitude toward crypto, which has invigorated capital markets this year.

In June, stablecoin issuer Circle made a highly successful stock market debut, raising more than $1 billion. That followed the transfer to Nasdaq (from Toronto) of Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital and stock and crypto trading app eToro’s IPO that valued it at $5.4 billion. Crypto custody startup BitGo and crypto exchange Gemini have also confidentially filed for U.S. listings. 

— CNBC’s Nick Wells contributed reporting.