Bullish (BLSH) Stock Jumps 83% On NYSE Listing, Cathie Wood Buys 2.5 Million Shares

Peter Thiel-backed crypto exchange Bullish (NYSE: BLSH) made a blockbuster debut on Wall Street on August 13, nearly doubling from its IPO price. Citing an early opportunity, Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest purchased a staggering 2.5 million BLSH shares on the very first day. The BLSH stock ended 83% on Wednesday’s closing, from its IPO price of $37 per share.

Bullish Stock Makes Blockbuster Debut on Wall Street

The much-awaited IPO for crypto exchange Bullish went live for trading on Wall Street, on August 13. On the debut day itself, the BLSH stock witnessed strong trading activity, ending the trading session at $68, up from its IPO price of $37. The crypto exchange had previously upsized its IPO offering to 30 million shares, while receiving 20 times the subscription.

Back in 2021, the crypto exchange tried to go public on Wall Street through a SPAC merger. However, the deal fell through amid the regulatory scrutiny. With the crypto regulatory framework becoming clearer under the Trump administration, crypto firms like Bullish (BLSH) and Circle (CRCL) have undertaken the IPO route. In a letter to investors, company CEO Thomas Farley said:

“We now intend to IPO because we believe that the digital assets industry is beginning its next leg of growth. We view transparency and compliance as hallmarks of how we operate Bullish, and believe those values align well with the public capital markets”.

Cathie Wood Buys 2.5 Million BLSH Shares

On the debut day itself, Cathie Wood purchased a total of 2,532,693 BLSH shares, across its three different Ark Invest funds. The ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) purchased a total of 1.7 million shares, the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) purchased over 500,000 BLSH shares, while the Ark Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF) purchased 272,000 shares of the crypto exchange.

Cathie Wood is known for her early entry into newly listed crypto firms, and also purchased the Circle (CRCL) stock on Day 1 during the June debut. Earlier this week, she also added shares of Jack Dorsey’s crypto payments firm Block Inc.

Before its IPO, Bullish attracted significant institutional attention. Along with Ark Invest, the largest asset manager, BlackRock has also shown interest in buying up to $200 million worth of shares, according to securities filings