Shares of cryptocurrency company Bullish US LLC jumped more than 105% in their trading debut on the New York Stock Exchange today.

A few hours earlier, Bullish raised $1.1 billion in an oversubscribed initial public offering. The company had originally planned to sell 20.3 million shares for up to $31 apiece. IPO participants instead bought 30 million shares for $37 apiece.

Cayman Islands-based Bullish operates an eponymous crypto exchange for institutional investors. The platform enables customers to trade in popular cryptocurrencies and crypto derivatives, as well as carry out margin trades. Those are transactions in which an investor buys assets using debt financing.

Bullish’s exchange is powered by a so-called automated market maker. It’s a software engine that uses liquidity derived from customer assets to automatically make trades. Customers receive fees from those trades. According to Bullish, the automated market maker makes its exchange more reliable and efficient than competing platforms.

Alongside its flagship exchange, the company operates the CoinDesk crypto publication and a service called CoinDesk Data. The latter offering provides investors with access to market information such as historical digital asset prices.

In its IPO prospectus, Bullish disclosed that CoinDesk Data is used by more than 11,000 customers. The company also detailed that its exchange processed $2.6 billion worth of transactions per day in the first quarter. That represents a 76% year-over-year increase.

Bullish estimates that its profit exceeded its revenue in the second quarter. The company generated between $30.8 million and $32.8 million in revenue during the three months through June 30, up from $26.3 million a year earlier. It logged net income of $106.1 million to $109.1 million in the same time frame.

The company’s second quarter net income included not only the profit generated by its products, but also gains from its sizable cryptocurrency holdings. Bullish owns 24,3000 bitcoin, 12,600 Ether and $418 million worth of other assets such as stablecoins. The combined value of those assets increased by about $68 million in the second quarter.

Bullish plans to make its exchange available in more markets following this week’s IPO. Additionally, it will give users the ability to buy and sell options. Those are financial instruments that enable an investor to buy an asset at a future date for a predetermined price.

CoinDesk Data is also a focus of the company’s growth push. According to the IPO prospectus, Bullish plans to introduce new cryptocurrency data services for investors. The filing indicates that the company may make acquisitions to accelerate its product development roadmap. 

Photo: Unsplash