Crypto Has Gone IPO Crazy, And That’s Good For Crypto

The months of July and August have traditionally always been one of the quietest periods for initial public offerings, but you wouldn’t know it if you’ve been watching the crypto industry over the last few weeks. During that time, it seems like everyone who is anyone in the crypto realm has been scrambling to get their names listed on the New York Stock Exchange. 

The sudden spate of crypto IPO announcements by names like OKX, Kraken, Gemini and BitGo, is perhaps the clearest evidence yet that the enduring bullish sentiment, which has been hovering around the industry since the tail end of 2023, is here to stay for the foreseeable future. 

The amazing success of USDC stablecoin issuer Circle’s recent IPO appears to have opened the floodgates for an industry that has been chomping at the bit for years to get a taste of the institutional capital that it hopes will propel it into the mainstream. 

Circle’s IPO kicked off on June 5, and it was one of the most successful in recent memory, with its stock gaining by an extraordinary 180% on its first day of trading, before growing by more than 600% by the end of its first week. It was an incredible debut that underscored a sudden resurgence in the wider tech IPO market, which had until recently spent several years in the doldrums. 

Crypto Goes Mainstream

This year, the crypto industry has gained significant traction, bolstered by supportive regulations issued in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Trump’s administration is the most crypto-friendly ever seen, propelling the price of Bitcoin to a new record-high of more than $119,000, and its momentum shows no signs of slowing anytime soon. 

Whereas crypto was once seen as a fringe movement, the developments of this year – including Trump’s decision to create a strategic “Bitcoin reserve” – suggest that it is now a maturing technology that is increasingly attracting the attention of traditional financial institutions and enterprises alike. 

Indeed, with the recent introduction of Trump’s GENIUS Act, the U.S.’s first stablecoin legislation, institutions such as the Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citibank have all announced plans to launch their own digital assets pegged to the U.S. dollar. Retailers such as Amazon and Walmart have revealed ambitions to explore what crypto can do for them, while companies such as BitMine, GameStop and Marathon Digital Holdings have all embraced the idea of holding digital assets such as Bitcoin and Ether in their treasuries. 

Everyone Wants an IPO

All of this suggests that the bull run in crypto has not yet reached its crescendo, and the astonishing success of Circle’s IPO seems to have emboldened many other industry players who were likely sitting on the fence, such as the crypto asset manager Grayscale. 

One of the latest to make its move was Kraken, one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges, which said on July 30 that it will hold an IPO later this year, seeking to raise up to $500 million at a $15 billion valuation. That came after Gemini, an exchange founded by the Winklevoss twins, revealed its own IPO plans in June. BitGo, the digital asset custodian associated with “wrapped Bitcoin”, is also eyeing an IPO later this year, as is the Peter Thiel-backed exchange Bullish. 

Plenty of other big crypto names have also been linked with IPOs, including the crypto exchange OKX and the Ethereum developer ConsenSys. 

Andrei Grachev, managing partner DWF Labs, said the news that OKX is looking into a possible IPO, just months after it paid $505 million to settle a long-running dispute with the U.S. Department of Justice, illustrates the rapid progress the crypto industry has made towards becoming more mainstream.  

“This is a strong signal that the crypto industry isn’t just bouncing back,” he said. “It’s more than that, it’s a sign that the industry is maturing fast.” 

Adding Fuel To Crypto’s Fire

There are well-founded reasons to think that the IPOs will add even more momentum to the crypto industry, helping to propel digital assets to even greater heights than they’ve reached so far. 

For one thing, traditional stocks and shares are a much more attractive prospect for old-skool investors. Buying shares via a stock broker is a much simpler experience than trying to navigate through liquidity pools on Curve Finance, for instance, or struggling to set up a digital wallet. Listed stocks can be easily purchased through brokerage platforms like Robinhood, so there’s none of the friction that’s often associated with crypto. Investors can buy stocks and gain exposure to digital assets, without worrying about the hassles associated with it. 

Furthermore, the influx of investor capital into the industry is likely to flow through the broader crypto ecosystem, filtering its way down to even the smallest projects. The likes of OKX, Gemini and Kraken will almost certainly use their newfound millions to stock up on digital assets, and that means there should be more money trickling down to the builders of decentralized applications and infrastructure layers.

Boosting Web3 Builders

Some analysts have shared concerns that the spate of crypto IPOs might detract from the overall crypto market, meaning that it’s unlikely to see the kinds of gains that made the bull run of 2021 so memorable. 

This may be true to an extent, Given the rapid rate at which crypto is maturing, it’s unrealistic to expect 1,000-times returns on most digital assets. But the listings also help to legitimize cryptocurrencies as an established part of the financial economy. 

The kinds of crypto firms that are either listed already or planning to do so are some of the biggest gateways into the Web3 ecosystem, helping millions of people to become acquired with their first digital assets. If investors are regularly buying and selling shares of companies like Circle, Coinbase and Kraken, they may become comfortable enough with crypto to look beyond these basic listed assets. 

“A few years ago, the idea of global exchanges listing in the U.S. felt far off,” Grachev said. “Now, it’s becoming a real path. If done right, this move could bring more trust and visibility to the space, which benefits everyone building in Web3.” 

Moreover, while altcoins are no longer the only option for crypto investors, they still offer the traditional benefits of crypto, which can’t be found with stocks and shares – things like decentralization, governance and custody of assets. These attributes have long been one of the biggest pull factors of crypto, and that is not going to change. If anything, the growing familiarity with crypto companies will only help more people to learn about these kinds of benefits.   

Of course, there’s no guarantee that any altcoin is “going to the moon” anytime soon, especially now that investors have so many more choices – not only cryptocurrencies and IPOs, but also tokenized assets and things like ETFs. As such, crypto firms may have to do more to make their tokens stand out. 

Nonetheless, the crypto industry still retains its explosive and unpredictable nature, and as the digital asset market reaps the benefits of its coming IPO capital influx, rest assured that there will be plenty more ups and downs before the ongoing bullish sentiment peters out.