Original author: 1912212.eth, Foresight News

In May 2018, investor Li Xiaolai boasted that he would “review EOS in seven years.” Seven years later, the price of EOS had plummeted more than 40 times from its peak.

Ironically, Bullish, founded by Block.one, the company behind the EOS platform, will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on August 13, 2025 (exactly seven years later) under the ticker symbol "BLSH," with trading expected to begin at 9:30 PM Beijing time on August 13. Block.one has become a significant player in the crypto ecosystem through its core businesses—the institutional-grade digital asset platform Bullish and the CoinDesk media platform.

Amid the surge in crypto company IPOs, Foresight News provides insights into Bullish from a data perspective.

Target valuation: $4.8 billion

Bullish's IPO pricing range was recently raised to $32-33 per share, increasing the offering to 30 million shares, with a target fundraising of $990 million and a valuation of approximately $4.8 billion. This represents an increase from the earlier plan to sell 20.3 million shares at $28-31 per share. This adjustment reflects strong investor demand for crypto infrastructure, particularly as Bitcoin prices stabilize above $110,000 and institutional adoption grows.

BlackRock and Cathie Wood’s ARK have said they plan to buy $200 million of the shares. Bullish is expected to price on Tuesday and begin trading the following day.

Bullish was officially established in June 2021 and is headquartered in the Cayman Islands, with subsidiaries in Hong Kong, the United States, Singapore, and other locations. Its core business is divided into two main segments: Bullish Exchange, which offers spot, leveraged, and derivatives trading services and is regulated in Germany, Hong Kong, and Gibraltar; and CoinDesk, which focuses on indexes, data, and insights.

As of March 31, 2025, Bullish Exchange supports over 70 spot trading pairs and 45 perpetual futures pairs, serving qualified clients in over 50 jurisdictions worldwide. Since its launch, the platform has accumulated over $1.25 trillion in trading volume. In 2024, the global spot trading market share of Bitcoin (BTC/USDx) and Ethereum (ETH/USDx) reached $284.8 billion and $144.5 billion, respectively, demonstrating its competitiveness in the institutional market.

User growth is a key driver of Bullish's growth. Its active institutional client base increased 36% year-over-year in 2024, and CoinDesk attracted over 55 million unique visitors, with an average of 10.7 million monthly users. CoinDesk's index products boast over $41 billion in assets under management (AUM) and $15 billion in trading volume (as of June 30, 2025). Bullish is not only focusing on trading infrastructure, but also building a closed ecosystem through media and data services.

Financial performance further supports its growth momentum. According to the SEC F-1 filing, full-year 2024 net revenue is projected to be $80 million, with non-IFRS adjusted EBITDA of $52 million. However, a net loss of $349 million was recorded in the first quarter of 2025, primarily due to fluctuations in digital asset prices and operating costs. However, adjusted net income remained at $2 million, demonstrating stable profitability in the core business.

Preliminary second-quarter estimates indicate total revenue in the range of $60-62 million, adjusted EBITDA of $10-14 million, and net income ranging from -$2 million to $6 million. Revenue will be generated from a variety of sources, including transaction fees, spreads, licensing fees, and advertising, with adjusted transaction revenue expected to be $56-58 million in the second quarter of 2025.

Holding $3 billion worth of crypto assets

In May 2021, Block.one launched Bullish Global with a $1 billion investment, including $100 million in cash, 164,000 bitcoins (valued at approximately $9.7 billion at the time), and 20 million EOS tokens. External investors, including PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, hedge fund magnate Alan Howard, and prominent crypto investor Mike Novogratz, contributed an additional $300 million.

CEO Tom Farley, formerly President of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has extensive experience in traditional financial markets and excels at developing institutional-grade trading platforms. David Bonanno, currently Bullish's Chief Financial Officer, previously served as CFO of Far Peak Acquisition Corp., where he played a central role in capital allocation, business strategy, and key partnerships. Chief Operating Officer Sarah Johnson, also a seasoned executive with the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, excels in compliance and risk management, having previously worked at the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, where she helped Bullish obtain regulatory approvals in multiple jurisdictions.

The prospectus (Form F-1) disclosed that Bullish plans to convert more than 50% of the IPO funds into US dollar stablecoins to enhance liquidity and hedge against volatility in the crypto market.

Bullish's Bitcoin trading volume in the first quarter of 2025 was $108.6 billion, up 36% from $80.082 billion in the same period last year. Bitcoin's daily trading volume was $1.207 billion, up 37% from $880 million in the same period last year.

The prospectus shows that Bullish's digital asset sales in 2022, 2023 and 2024 will be US$72.89 billion, US$116.49 billion and US$250.2 billion respectively; and its net profit will be US$-4.246 billion, US$1.3 billion and US$79.56 million respectively.

Fast forward to August 2025, and the company stated in a filing filed on Monday that it currently holds over $3 billion in liquid assets, including 24,000 bitcoins, 12,600 ethers, and $418 million in cash and stablecoins. At the end of the second quarter, liquid assets are estimated to have increased to $2.05-2.15 billion, with net current assets of $1.499-1.599 billion.

Bullish's predecessor, Block.one, raised approximately $4.18 billion through the EOS ICO (Initial Coin Offering) in 2017-2018, one of the largest ICOs in crypto history, to develop the EOS platform.

EOS tokens were already distributed to investors, and the cash flow and income were used to purchase Bitcoin and Ethereum. From this investment alone, Bullish made a fortune.

EOS has failed to thrive as much as everyone expected, and it remains to be seen whether Bullish, the exchange created by block.one, can truly succeed.