So, the Peter Thiel-backed crypto exchange Bullish is filing to go public on the NYSE. There's something deliciously circular about a former NYSE president leading a crypto company back to the very exchange he once ran. It's like watching your ex-girlfriend show up at your wedding with your college roommate – uncomfortable, yet somehow fitting.
Tom Farley, Bullish's CEO, is executing the classic Wall Street playbook: spend time at an established institution, build credibility, then jump to the disruptive upstart promising to revolutionize the very system that minted your reputation. I've seen this movie before, and the sequel usually involves either spectacular success or congressional testimony. Sometimes both.
What's interesting here isn't just another crypto company going public – it's the timing. With Bitcoin crossing $117,000 and a newly pro-crypto administration taking office, we're witnessing what I call the "Institutional Permission Structure" taking shape. The pattern is familiar: fringe financial innovation gets dismissed as speculation or fraud until enough gray-haired establishment figures attach their names to it, at which point it magically transforms into "emerging asset class."
Look at the investor list: Peter Thiel, Nomura, Mike Novogratz. This isn't exactly a gathering of anarchist cypherpunks in a Berkeley garage. These are establishment players betting that crypto's wild adolescence is giving way to a more respectable adulthood. The $2.5 billion in average daily volume Bullish claims suggests they might be onto something.
I mean, $1.25 trillion in total trading volume since launch? For context, that's roughly equivalent to three weeks of NYSE trading. Not exactly replacing the traditional financial system yet, but substantial enough that ignoring it starts to look like willful blindness rather than prudent skepticism.
The most revealing detail might be buried in the timing: filing after Circle's sevenfold increase since its IPO and Trump signing the GENIUS Act. There's a model here I call "Regulatory Momentum Arbitrage" – the practice of rushing through newly-opened windows of opportunity before the inevitable backlash closes them. The crypto industry has mastered this, surfing waves of regulatory sentiment with remarkable dexterity.
What's particularly fascinating is how crypto repeatedly executes the same playbook that traditional finance pioneered: create something complex and volatile, gradually add institutional trappings and regulatory blessings, then sell access to retail investors at the moment of peak mainstream acceptance. Wall Street has been running this game for generations with various asset classes; crypto just cranked up the speed and amplitude.
The mention of stablecoins in Bullish's mission statement is telling. Stablecoins represent crypto's awkward acknowledgment that most people don't actually want the volatility that true crypto evangelists celebrate – they want the technological benefits without the roller coaster. It's like opening a strip club but emphasizing your excellent salad bar – a tacit admission about what most customers really want.
Meanwhile, the revolving door between politics and crypto spins faster than a turbocharged centrifuge. Thiel, Musk, and Trump's "AI and Crypto czar" David Sacks (a title that would have been indistinguishable from satire five years ago) are building the kind of regulatory environment where companies like Bullish can thrive. The investments in Trump's campaign weren't donations – they were call options on regulatory outcomes with asymmetric upside.
The question now is whether Bullish can differentiate itself in an increasingly crowded field. Competing with Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken means either outperforming established players at their own game or carving out a distinct niche. The traditional exchange business is ultimately about liquidity and trust – two resources that are particularly scarce in crypto markets, despite the industry's mathematical sophistication.
I suspect what we're witnessing is less a revolution than a gradual absorption. Traditional finance isn't being replaced; it's selectively incorporating crypto's innovations while neutralizing its more disruptive aspects. The true believers will call this co-option. The pragmatists will call it evolution. Either way, Bullish's IPO represents another milestone in crypto's long march toward mainstream acceptance – for better or worse.
As for whether that makes BLSH a good investment? Man, I don't know. But watching Wall Street and crypto continue their awkward tango of mutual assimilation will certainly be entertaining, regardless of where the stock trades.
