Bullish's stock opens with a bang - a sign that investors still crave crypto exposure
By Tomi KilgoreThe Coindesk parent's hot IPO has much in common with other cryptoc companies that recently saw strong opening-day gainsBullish's stock more than doubled with its opening trade and then rose further, in a sign that investors are still clamoring for crypto exposure.Wall Street gave shares of cryptocurrency-trading platform Bullish a standing ovation in their public debut Wednesday - a sign that investor appetite for exposure to digital currencies remains very healthy.The timing was right for CoinDesk parent Bullish to go public, as it comes on a day that bitcoin (BTCUSD) was surging 1.4% in recent trading toward a record close, according to FactSet data.The stock's (BLSH) first trade was at $90 at 1:01 p.m. Eastern, which was 143.2% above the pricing of the initial public offering at $37.It has added to gains since in very active trading, as it was up 153.6% in recent afternoon trading and had risen as much as 218.9% at the intraday high of $118. The stock has been halted three times for volatility since the opening trade.At current prices, Bullish would have a $13.72 billion market capitalization.The bullish open for Bullish follows an IPO that was upsized to 30 million shares, from a previously expected 20.3 million shares as of Aug. 4. And in a sign of how strong demand was, even with more supply, the expected pricing of the IPO had increased to a range of $32 to $33, from $28 to $31 previously. The company raised $1.11 billion from the IPO.The deal comes after stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group Inc.'s stock (CRCL) closed its first day of trading on June 5 at $83.23, or 168.5% above its $31 IPO price. And on May 14, crypto-trading company eToro Group Ltd.'s stock (ETOR) closed its first day 28.8% above the $52 IPO price.What the companies have in common is that they're all in the digital-asset business, they're all making money, and they all saw their IPOs upsized and priced above the expected ranges.And they all had some Wall Street heavyweights as their lead underwriters, such as J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.In another sign of investor appetite for not just crypto IPOs, but larger IPOs in general, Bullish's debut comes two weeks after design-software company Figma Inc.'s stock (FIG) set a record for a first-day gain, at 250%, after an IPO that raised more than $500 million.For the quarter to June 30, Figma said it expected to report for its bottom line anyhwere from a loss of $500,000 to a profit of $2.5 million. The lead underwriters for the IPO included Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan.-Tomi KilgoreThis content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.