Blockchain.com IPO Seeks $500M at $4B-$6B, Well Below 2022 Peak

A veteran crypto firm tries the public market again

Blockchain.com, one of the oldest companies in crypto, is telling prospective investors it wants to go public before the end of 2026. People familiar with the talks say it aims to raise about $500 million at a valuation of $4 billion to $6 billion.1 Those people also say the company would accept a smaller raise if demand calls for it, and that the terms are still being negotiated.12 A spokesperson declined to comment on the reported figures.6

The company is not starting from scratch. On May 21 it confirmed that it had confidentially submitted a draft Form S-1 to the SEC for an offering of Class A ordinary shares. At the time it said the share count and price range had not been set, and that any deal depended on market conditions and the SEC's review.812 Because the filing is confidential, investors still have no public prospectus, revenue figures, ticker, exchange or price range.619

The main reported facts are consistent across outlets: the $500 million target, the $4 billion to $6 billion range and the May filing all trace back to the same Bloomberg report.3 The details around the edges vary. Some accounts date that report to September 28 and others to September 29.17 One outlet describes the company as London-based and another as Dallas-based.1132 One reports more than $1.2 trillion in processed transactions, while the company's other public statements say more than $1.1 trillion.206 A pre-IPO tracker lists the company with a $7 billion valuation, above the top of the reported range.33 None of these differences changes the main story, but they show how little has been formally disclosed.

The math of a down-round IPO

The headline number is the gap between the target and the company's 2022 peak. In March 2022, Blockchain.com raised a Series D at roughly $14 billion, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with Baillie Gifford participating. That was more than double the $5.2 billion valuation from its $300 million Series C a year earlier.56 The peak didn't last. In November 2023 it raised $110 million in a Series E led by Kingsway Capital at less than half the $14 billion mark.612

At $6 billion, public investors would be valuing the company about 57% below its peak. At $4 billion, the discount would be about 71%.19 Seen another way, the range is roughly 29% to 43% of the 2022 valuation.5 The company says it has raised $537 million in equity over its history.26

The discount is the clearest sign that the company is pricing for demand rather than vindication. One analysis made the same point, arguing that the range is set to clear the market rather than to recover past highs. It also noted that comparing preferred-stock private rounds with common stock sold in an IPO is never exact.16 The discount also indicates that early backers who bought in at the top have accepted a markdown so the company can get public liquidity. That is a common pattern for companies that peaked in 2021 and 2022.

The main point in the company's favor is profitability. People familiar with its finances say it has been profitable on an adjusted basis for three straight years.27 At least one outlet warned that this claim has not been verified in any public filing. Investors will need to see it in the registration statement before they trust either end of the range.16 This analysis agrees with that caution. "Adjusted" profits can exclude a lot, and the public S-1 will be the first real check.

A listing window that only recently thawed

The timing makes sense given how badly the crypto IPO market went cold earlier this year. Several crypto firms listed in 2025, including Circle, Gemini and Bullish, and many started with big first-day gains. Bullish rose 89% on its first day and Gemini rose 14%.2113 Then the market reversed. By mid-2026, Gemini was trading about 89% below its debut, BitGo about 77% below its January 2026 first trade and Bullish about 71% below its opening price.2324

How bad those numbers look depends on the starting point. Measured from the IPO offer price rather than the first trade, Circle was about 110% higher and Figure about 24% higher at that point, while the other four were below their offer prices.24 That matters for Blockchain.com. Investors who buy at the offer price are the ones it has to persuade, and two of the stronger names show that a well-priced deal can still work for them.

The pipeline stalled anyway. Kraken's parent, Payward, paused its listing on March 18. Grayscale, ConsenSys and Ledger also postponed or dropped their plans.2328 One explanation pointed to three pressures at once: falling token prices, outflows from spot ETFs, and weak trading in recently listed stocks that discouraged the next companies in line. It also argued that the 2026 AI boom drew away risk capital crypto had counted on.23 CoinDesk described this year as quiet for crypto listings after a weak first half led companies to wait.11

Conditions have improved since then. Bitcoin has risen more than 30% since mid-August.5 One market report put it near $84,000 when the Blockchain.com news broke, up from about $61,700 in July.1523 Kraken also shows that private investors still value crypto platforms: Nasdaq Ventures invested $100 million at a $21 billion valuation in September. However, Kraken has not published an updated listing timeline.28 Kraken's confidential filing means Blockchain.com may not be the only crypto issuer trying to list in the remaining weeks of the year.19

Building a story beyond the crypto cycle

Blockchain.com's recent announcements look like groundwork for its IPO pitch, with a clear effort to look less dependent on Bitcoin's price. On September 23 it signed a memorandum of understanding with NYSE Group to explore giving users access to tokenized U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs through the NYSE's planned digital trading venue. The deal also covers sharing market data in both directions with ICE.1219 Both companies say this is not a live product. It has no launch date and needs regulatory approval.8

It has also expanded in several other directions. The company launched perpetual contracts tied to the valuations of OpenAI and Anthropic, using Hyperliquid's infrastructure, and added prediction markets through a partnership with Polymarket.20 In August it obtained a custody license in the Cayman Islands, and it has expanded into Brazil, Ghana and Nigeria.620 On October 13 it applied to the CFTC for a designated contract market license and futures commission merchant registration. These would let it offer event contracts and crypto derivatives to U.S. customers.31 That would put it up against Coinbase, Robinhood, Crypto.com and Gemini in prediction markets.32

The company also has scale to point to. It cites more than 95 million wallets, over 44 million confirmed accounts and activity in more than 70 jurisdictions.1931 But wallet counts measure reach, not revenue. Investors will want to see how much of the business still depends on retail trading volume and price swings.19

What to watch

The deal depends on a few things the company can't fully control. The SEC has to finish its review, Blockchain.com has to file publicly and then run a roadshow, all while crypto prices hold up.6 It has done this before: it interviewed banks for an IPO in April 2022, right after the $14 billion round, and dropped the plan when the market fell.6

The signals worth tracking are where the price lands within the $4 billion to $6 billion range, whether the $500 million raise grows or shrinks, and whether long-only institutional funds buy alongside crypto-focused investors.16 A deal that prices near the top with broad institutional demand would probably encourage other private crypto firms to list. A reduced deal would suggest the market is reopening only on much more cautious terms.16

In this analysis, the outcome depends more on the price than on whether the deal gets done. Blockchain.com has already accepted the reset from its 2022 valuation, reports adjusted profits, and has a story about tokenization and derivatives. Those are the factors that have recently separated crypto listings that held up from those that collapsed. A modest valuation, an offering the company is willing to shrink, and a year-end deadline point to an issuer trying to get public while the market is open. The main risk is that crypto turns down again before the roadshow, which is what ended the 2022 attempt.