Crypto Exchange Blockchain.com Files for IPO in the US

In brief

• U.K.-based Blockchain.com is seeking an initial public offering via the U.S. equity markets.
• Details about how much it is seeking to raise and what price point it will offer shares are not yet public.
• The firm, once valued as high as $14 billion, adds to a growing list of crypto firms intending to IPO.

Crypto exchange Blockchain.com has confidentially filed for its U.S. public offering, the firm announced on Thursday.  Details about the number of shares being offered or expected price range of the offering have not been determined.  The U.K.-based firm was founded in 2011, and since that time has facilitated the creation of more than 100 million crypto wallets and $1 trillion worth of transactions, according to its website. 

Blockchain.com’s intent to go public adds it to a growing list of crypto firms, including fellow exchange Kraken, hardware wallet and crypto security firm Ledger, and MetaMask developer Consensys—one of numerous investors in an editorially independent _Decrypt—_that have all reportedly signaled plans to IPO.  Those plans follow the completed public offerings of a handful of crypto firms last year, including the massively successful public launch of stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL), which saw its shares jump more than 168% on its first day of trading. Other firms, like crypto exchanges Gemini (GEMI) and Bullish (BLSH) and blockchain lender Figure Technologies (FIGR) all followed suit, adding fuel to the trend that saw crypto firms become publicly traded entities. 

While both exchanges quickly notched public valuations that exceeded $4 billion, their paths have since diverged, with GEMI trading at less than a $700 million market cap on Thursday. Meanwhile, BLSH is trading around $36.25, just below its IPO issuance of $37 per share, notching an intraday market cap of around $5.94 billion according to data from Yahoo Finance. How Blockchain.com—formerly the crypto exchange partner of the Dallas Cowboys—will stack up to its exchange competitors remains to be seen, though it was once valued as highly as $14 billion.  Earlier this year, the firm secured approval from the U.K. financial regulators to offer its services to crypto customers in the nation. A representative for the firm did not immediately respond to _Decrypt’s _request for comment.