Bullish Shuns Fiat, Receives $1.15B IPO Proceeds in USDC and RLUSD Stablecoins

Crypto exchange Bullish has become the first to settle its IPO proceeds in stablecoins at such a large scale. The Peter Thiel-backed crypto exchange announced that it had received all the proceeds in several stablecoins, including Circle’s USDC and Ripple’s RLUSD.

Bullish Settles IPO Proceeds In Stablecoins

In a news release, the crypto exchange announced that it had arranged to receive $1.15 billion of proceeds from its recently completed initial public offering (IPO) in stablecoins. The company noted that this represents a historic step for the use of stablecoins in a U.S. IPO.

This follows Bullish’s debut on the NYSE following a successful IPO last week. The crypto exchange raised $1.15 billion after selling around 20.3 million shares for $37 per share.

The crypto exchange further revealed that most of the stablecoins were minted on the Solana network. Jefferies, as the billing and delivery agent for the IPO, coordinated the stablecoin minting, conversion, and delivery process. Notably, the exchange received the proceeds in dollar and euro-dominated stablecoins.

The majority of the proceeds were in USDC, along with a portion that the crypto exchange received in EURC, Circle’s Euro-backed stablecoin. Bullish revealed that top crypto exchange Coinbase is exclusively custodying these coins.

Other stablecoins involved in the transaction include Ripple’s RLUSD, Societe Generale-FORGE’s USDCV and EURCV, Global Dollar’s USDG, PayPay’s PYUSD, World Liberty Financial’s USD1, Agora’s AUSD, and AllUnity’s EURAU.

Commenting on this historic move, Bullish’s CFO David Bonanno said that they view stablecoins as one of the “most transformative and widespread use cases for digital assets.” He revealed how they leverage them for rapid and secure global fund transfers, especially on the Solana network.

Ripple and Coinbase React To The Stablecoin Announcement

Following Bullish’s announcement of the receipt of its IPO proceeds in stablecoins, Ripple congratulated the crypto exchange on a successful IPO. The crypto firm noted that a portion of these proceeds was in RLUSD on the XRP Ledger.

Ripple further remarked that this is the first public listing to bring the settlement process on-chain and now sets a precedent for how stablecoins can shape future listings.

Meanwhile, Coinbase stated that stablecoins are just better and that Bullish has again proven how they are “faster, cheaper, and more global.” The crypto exchange added that it is proud to be part of history as the exclusive custodian of USDC and EURC proceeds from the IPO.