Social trading and investment marketplace company eToro Group Ltd. has reportedly filed a confidential application with U.S. regulators ahead of a potential initial public offering later this year.

First reported today by the Financial Times, the IPO could value the business at more than $5 billion. The confidential nature of the filing — typical in the first step toward a public offering — means specific details about the IPO’s structure or the timeline are currently undisclosed.

Presuming the report is accurate, eToro’s decision to go public follows a failed attempt by the company to trade on public markets through a merger with special-purpose acquisition company FinTech Acquisition Corp. V. Announced in March 2021, the plans for the SPAC merger were terminated in July 2022, officially because of conditions between the two companies not being satisfied, but more likely market conditions were a dominant factor.

Forward to 2025 and with a new president set to be sworn in and increasing confidence and hope for friendlier government policies post-Jan. 20, equity markets are predicted to rally this year, making the timing far more favorable for eToro.

As eToro is making its second attempt to go public, it’s doing so at a lower valuation than if it had done so in 2022, since the SPAC merger would have valued it at $10.4 billion. But at a $5 billion valuation for its IPO this year, the figure is higher than the $3.5 billion valuation given to the company when it raised $250 million from investors including SoftBank Group Corp. and Ion Group in 2023.

The decision by eToro to likely go public also comes amid increasing hopes for a buoyant IPO market this year. Reuters reported on Jan. 10 that investment bankers are gearing up for a pickup in dealmaking activity in global equity capital markets this year, with a promising pipeline of anticipated IPOs of several high-profile companies.

Other companies that could see IPOs this year include Swedish payments firm Klarna Bank AB, artificial intelligence cloud platform company CoreWeave Inc., financial technology firm Chime Financial Inc., liquefied natural gas producer Venture Global LNG Inc., privately held medical supply giant Medline Industries LP and cybersecurity company Sailpoint Technologies Holdings Inc.

Image: 30478819@N08/Flickr