Carey Olsen acted as Cayman Islands counsel in one of the most significant events ever in the jurisdiction’s fintech and digital asset sector when Bullish made a strong debut on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Wednesday, 13 Aug.
Bullish, an institutional cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in the Cayman Islands, priced its initial public offering (IPO) at US$37 a share, coming in above expectations. By the close of its opening day, that price had already reached US$90 a share, giving the company a market value of more than US$13 billion.
The listing makes Bullish one of two NYSE-listed cryptocurrency exchanges, alongside Coinbase, and attracted upfront commitment of US$200 million in the offering by BlackRock and ARK Investment Management. This follows a period of rapid growth for Bullish, having acquired CoinDesk and CCData in 2023 and 2024.
The Carey Olsen team was led by Hong Kong corporate partner Michael Padarin. Morgan Lewis acted as US counsel to Bullish in connection with the IPO.
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Citigroup and Jefferies LLC acted as joint book-running managers of the IPO and as representatives of the underwriters.
Padarin said: “We would like to extend our sincere congratulations to the Bullish team on their landmark IPO on the NYSE. Having worked alongside the team on a number of prior funding and restructuring transactions, it was a privilege to support them on this major milestone for the company. Significant interest in the listing and other recent peer listings highlights the continued growth of the digital assets industry and increasing institutional appetite for exposure to this sector.”
Frachtis Fund I LP
Carey Olsen’s digital assets and fintech team regularly advises clients on the largest projects in the digital assets, crypto and fintech space, including novel and complex token launches.
It also advised on the launch of Frachtis Fund I LP, a pre-seed crypto-native investment fund designed to support early-stage builders in decentralised infrastructure, AI, middleware and consumer apps.
The Carey Olsen London investment funds team that acted as lead legal counsel on all Cayman Islands aspects of the transaction comprised partner Jasmine Amaria and senior associate Harry Hadjiyannis.
Jasmine Amaria said: “As a leading offshore law firm for both the funds and digital assets sectors, we were pleased to support Frachtis throughout this project and to continue our work advising innovative market-leaders in this space.”
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