Bullish to Go Public with $9 Billion SPAC Merger

Key Takeaways

Bullish plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange through a business merger with Far Peak Acquisition.
The merger values the exchange at $9 billion. It’s expected to take place by the end of 2021.
Block.one has raised $300 in PIPE financing on top of previous capital raise for the SPAC deal.

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Bullish plans to go public through a SPAC merger, its parent company Block.one confirmed today.

Bullish To Be Publicly Listed

Peter Theil-backed crypto exchange Bullish plans to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) through a business merger with Far Peak Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company.

The merger deal makes Bullish the second crypto exchange after Coinbase to be listed on an American exchange.

After regulatory approvals are granted, the final transaction is expected to take place before the end of 2021. The merged company is valued at $9 billion, 25% of Coinbase’s $45 billion valuation, without having a usable product.

Developed by blockchain firm Block.one, Bullish hopes to launch a non-custodial crypto exchange that combines a traditional order book-based exchange with DeFi.

According to Block.one, Bullish will let retail and institutional users trade and earn yield on their crypto assets. The launch is highly anticipated given the scale of capital invested in the project.

Unlike most blockchain-based exchanges, the exchange touts itself as high performance as it settles transactions on EOS, a centralized blockchain with only 21 block producers.

The firm is backed by Peter Thiel, a renowned venture capitalist and co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund.

For the SPAC deal, Bullish revealed it had raised $300 million in PIPE financing in a round led by EFM Asset Management, with participation from investors managed by BlackRock, Cryptology Asset Group, and Galaxy Digital.

The latest PIPE funding follows a previous investment round closed a few months ago. In May, Bullish raised $300 million from Thiel Capital and Founders Fund, Galaxy Digital, and Nomura.

Block.one, its parent entity and the creator of the EOS blockchain, also allocated an initial capital of $100 million in cash and cryptocurrencies, comprising 164,000 BTC and 20 million EOS valued at roughly $5.5 billion at current prices.

Bullish hopes to launch the exchange before the SPAC merger takes place.  In the coming weeks, the exchange is arranging a private pilot program that will let users test its order book and liquidity pools.

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