Problem with crypto IPOs: How high-profile listings became trap for investors

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Problem with crypto IPOs

Public status is no longer a sign of quality

Until recently, a crypto company’s stock market debut looked like a sign of the industry’s maturity. If a company completes a listing, attracts major investors and gets a ticker on the stock market, it means the crypto market is finally becoming part of the broader financial system. But recent listings have shown the other side of this story.

According to 10x Research, eight public crypto companies have lost an average of about 73% from the highs reached after going public. The list includes Amber, Bullish, BitGo, Coinbase, Circle, Figure, Gemini and Securitize. For early buyers, these stocks became not a successful investment, but a painful reminder of how quickly hype can crash into market reality.

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The problem is not the weakness of these companies. Among them are major exchanges, infrastructure players, custodians, stablecoin issuers and projects tied to asset tokenization. The problem is different: investors too often bought not the current business, but the promise of future growth. But the market quickly changes its tone when expectations collide with reality.

Chasing the dream

Bullish is a telling example. As CNBC reported, in August 2025, the crypto exchange raised about $1.1 billion in its IPO and came to the market with a strong story for investors. The company focused on institutional clients, was led by former New York Stock Exchange President Tom Farley, and counted Peter Thiel among its well-known investors.

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The start looked almost triumphant. The stocks were priced at $37, but on the first day of trading they opened at $90, briefly rose to $118 and closed at $68. Investors were buying the idea that a major institutional wave had finally arrived in the industry.

But the story quickly lost its shine. Bullish stocks are now trading around $25.7, meaning they are below not only the first-day peaks, but also the IPO price. This clearly shows the main problem with crypto stocks: the public market can quickly get carried away by a beautiful narrative, but it still eventually returns to the question of the business itself.

Securitize and faith in tokenization

The Securitize case shows that the problem is not limited to crypto exchanges. The company went public through a merger with a SPAC firm and looked like an almost ideal bet on one of Wall Street’s hottest trends: the tokenization of real-world assets. Securitize had a strong image, a connection to BlackRock and a clear story about bringing traditional financial instruments onto blockchain rails.

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But that was not enough. In the first days after going public, Securitize stocks fell sharply: at one point, the decline reached 25% in a single day, and since the deal was completed, the stocks have lost about 40%.

What is notable is that the decline did not follow any obvious negative event. It was more about a shift in investor attitudes toward the entire class of crypto stocks. After a series of weak listings, the market began pricing in risks in advance: dependence on the crypto cycle, limited liquidity, inflated expectations and uncertainty around future revenue.

The market has cooled, but the IPO queue remains

The failure of recent listings does not mean crypto companies will stop going public. On the contrary, a new queue of candidates has already formed. Kraken, Consensys and Ledger have considered IPOs as a possible next step, while Blockchain.com has already confidentially filed for a U.S. listing.

For the industry, this makes sense. Many early investors entered these companies at the early stages and are waiting for a chance to lock in profits. In addition, the U.S. regulatory backdrop has become more favorable for digital assets, while Wall Street remains interested in stablecoins, tokenization and crypto market infrastructure.

But the conditions have changed. Many crypto companies have started delaying or reassessing their plans amid a weak market and poor performance by recently listed firms. The word “crypto” alone is no longer enough in an investment story. Public investors will look at business scale, revenue stability, profitability and the ability to survive a downturn without a sharp deterioration in performance.

That is why the next cycle of crypto IPOs will be very different. Companies will still try to sell the market a story about new financial infrastructure. But investors have already seen what can happen when they buy at the peak of expectations.

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