Six crypto-native companies completed initial public offerings between May 2025 and January 2026. All six now trade below their listing prices. The average decline from IPO price to current trading level stands at approximately 55%, with the worst performer — Gemini Space Station (GEMI) — down 82...
"The shorter-term prospects for these stocks are closely tied to the ups and downs of crypto prices. Most cryptocurrency companies are very heavily exposed to both the price of cryptocurrency and the amount of interest there is in cryptocurrency." — Morningstar analyst, May 2026
Six crypto-native companies completed initial public offerings between May 2025 and January 2026. All six now trade below their listing prices. The average decline from IPO price to current trading level stands at approximately 55%, with the worst performer — Gemini Space Station (GEMI) — down 82% from its $28 offer price to $5.16 as of May 23, 2026.
The destruction of shareholder value across the class has triggered a secondary effect: three additional crypto firms — Kraken, Ledger, and Consensys — have paused or delayed their own IPO plans, citing market conditions. Against this backdrop, Blockchain.com filed a confidential draft S-1 with the SEC on May 21, 2026, targeting a $7 billion valuation, half the $14 billion it commanded in 2022. The filing tests a market that has punished every predecessor.
This report examines the performance of each listing, the structural reasons behind the underperformance, and what the data implies for the incoming cohort of crypto public companies.
The following table summarizes every crypto-native IPO completed since May 2025. All price data is as of May 23, 2026.
| Company | Ticker | IPO Date | IPO Price | Day-1 Close | Current Price | Change from IPO | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | eToro | ETOR | May 2025 | $52.00 | $67.00 | $39.59 | -24% | | Circle | CRCL | Jun 2025 | ~$31* | — | $113.12 | — | | Bullish | BLSH | Aug 2025 | $37.00 | $118.00 | $35.56 | -4% | | Gemini | GEMI | Sep 2025 | $28.00 | $32.00 | $5.16 | -82% | | BitGo | BTGO | Jan 2026 | $18.00 | $20.00 | $7.88 | -56% |
Note: Circle's IPO mechanics differed as a direct listing on the NYSE. The stock hit a 52-week high of $298.99 and now trades at $113.12, a 62% decline from peak. eToro reached a 52-week high of $79.96 before declining.
Aggregate picture: Excluding Circle's direct listing, the four traditional crypto IPOs show an average decline of 41.5% from offer price. Including peak-to-current declines across all five, average drawdown from highs exceeds 60%.
Bullish presents the starkest day-one-to-current trajectory. Shares opened at $90 and briefly topped $118 before settling to $35.56, erasing a 219% first-day gain entirely.
eToro priced at $52, above its marketed range of $46–$50, raising approximately $620 million at a $4.2 billion valuation. Shares hit $79.96 intraday in June 2025 before declining. The stock currently trades at $39.59. Q1 2026 adjusted EPS of $0.91 beat consensus of $0.70 by 30%, yet the stock declined on the report as crypto trading volumes fell. The company's diversified revenue model — spanning equities, crypto, and social trading — has provided relative resilience compared to pure-play crypto peers.
Circle's direct listing on the NYSE makes direct IPO-price comparisons imprecise. The stock peaked at $298.99 before falling to a current level of $113.12. Q1 2026 revenue of $694 million missed forecasts by 2.9%, though EPS of $0.21 beat estimates by 16.7%. Trailing twelve-month revenue stands at $2.7 billion, driven primarily by USDC reserve interest income. Circle is the only crypto-listed company with a consensus Buy rating from analysts, with a median price target of $145.80. Its revenue model — interest income on USDC reserves — is structurally less volatile than exchange-dependent peers, which partially explains its relative outperformance.
Bullish completed a $1.15 billion IPO in August 2025, with portions of the settlement conducted in stablecoins on Solana. Priced at $37, shares opened at $90 and hit $118 on day one, implying a peak market cap exceeding $13 billion. The stock has since collapsed to $35.56. Q4 headline EPS came in at -$3.85, dramatically below the expected $0.16. ARK Invest's Fintech Innovation ETF has purchased shares at current levels, but the position represents a contrarian bet on a company that has yet to demonstrate sustained profitability.
Gemini Space Station, the Winklevoss-founded exchange, priced at $28 in September 2025. First-day trading saw a modest 14% pop to ~$32. The stock now trades at $5.16, an 82% decline and the worst performer in the class. Q1 2026 net loss reached $109 million. Three C-suite executives — COO, CFO, and CLO — departed. Multiple securities class-action lawsuits allege inadequate IPO disclosures. On May 14, 2026, Winklevoss Capital Fund injected $100 million by purchasing 7.14 million Class A shares at $14 per share — nearly triple the current market price. Shares jumped 25% on the announcement but subsequently retreated. Potential acquirers are reportedly circling the company, according to CoinDesk.
BitGo, the crypto custody firm, became the first crypto-native IPO of 2026 in January, pricing at $18 above its $15–$17 range. Shares hit $24.50 intraday on day one before settling at ~$20. The stock currently trades at $7.88, a 56% decline. BitGo raised approximately $213 million in the offering. As a custody infrastructure provider rather than an exchange, BitGo's revenue is theoretically less cyclical, yet public market investors have applied the same crypto-sector discount.
The underperformance of the 2025–2026 class has chilled the pipeline. Three significant companies have paused or delayed their listings:
Kraken filed confidentially with the SEC in November 2025. In March 2026, parent company Payward put the multibillion-dollar IPO on hold, citing "difficult market conditions." Kraken separately launched KRAKacquisition Corp, a SPAC that debuted on Nasdaq in January 2026 with a $345 million offering, suggesting the company is pursuing alternative public-market exposure while waiting for conditions to improve for its core listing.
Ledger, the French hardware wallet maker, paused its U.S. IPO plans on May 13, 2026. The company had engaged Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, and Barclays for a listing targeting a $4 billion valuation. No draft S-1 had been filed before the pause. Ledger may pursue a private capital raise instead.
Consensys, the Ethereum development firm behind MetaMask, pushed its IPO to fall 2026 at the earliest. Previously valued at $7 billion in a 2022 Series D round, the company had engaged JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs as lead underwriters. A confidential S-1 filing had not been submitted before the delay was announced on May 13, 2026.
The combined target valuation of the three paused listings exceeds $20 billion, representing significant unrealized public-market supply.
On May 21, 2026, Blockchain.com submitted a confidential draft S-1 to the SEC. Key metrics:
The filing arrives after every crypto IPO predecessor has traded below its listing price. Blockchain.com's decision to proceed where Kraken, Ledger, and Consensys paused suggests either superior confidence in its financial profile, a pressing need for public-market capital, or a calculation that filing now positions it for a listing window later in 2026 if conditions improve. A confidential S-1 does not commit the company to a public offering — it initiates SEC review while preserving optionality.
Coinbase (COIN), the only major crypto exchange that has been publicly traded through a full market cycle, provides context for the newer listings.
Coinbase's Q1 results illustrate the core challenge: even with positive adjusted EBITDA, GAAP losses of $394 million and a 31% revenue decline show the extent to which exchange economics are tethered to crypto trading volumes, which fell 28% quarter-over-quarter. The stock has declined 37.6% over six months.
The uniform underperformance across the crypto IPO class is not attributable to any single company's execution failures. Several structural factors are at work:
1. Revenue Cyclicality. Crypto exchange revenue is directly correlated with trading volume, which is directly correlated with token prices. When Bitcoin fell from its 2025 highs above $100,000 to approximately $76,400 in late May 2026, trading volumes compressed and exchange revenues fell in tandem. Public equity investors, accustomed to more predictable revenue trajectories, have applied steep discounts.
2. Valuation Compression. The 2025 IPO cohort priced during a period of elevated crypto enthusiasm. Bullish's $37 offer price and subsequent $118 first-day close were set against a crypto market that has since contracted materially. The gap between IPO-day pricing and current fundamentals reflects the difference between momentum-driven and fundamentals-driven valuation.
3. Concentrated Revenue Streams. With the partial exception of eToro (multi-asset) and Circle (interest income), most crypto-listed companies derive the majority of revenue from a single business line — trading fees. This concentration amplifies downside exposure during market contractions.
4. Regulatory Overhang. Despite progress on the GENIUS Act and CLARITY Act in Congress, the U.S. regulatory framework for digital assets remains incomplete. Uncertainty over which assets are securities, how DeFi protocols should be classified, and what reporting obligations apply to exchanges creates a structural discount that traditional financial companies do not bear.
5. Limited Institutional Holding Periods. Several IPOs saw significant first-day pops followed by sustained selling, consistent with short-term allocation strategies rather than long-term institutional holds. Bullish's trajectory — from $118 to $35.56 — exemplifies rapid position unwinding by first-day buyers.
Zero positive returns. No crypto IPO from the 2025–2026 class has delivered positive returns from its offer price, excluding intraday first-day trading gains. Circle is an exception as a direct listing with no traditional offer price, but it trades 62% below its peak.
Average decline exceeds 40%. The four traditional IPOs (eToro, Bullish, Gemini, BitGo) average a 41.5% decline from offer price. Including peak-to-current drawdowns, average losses exceed 60%.
Pipeline is freezing. Three companies with a combined target valuation above $20 billion (Kraken, Ledger, Consensys) have paused or delayed listings, reducing the near-term supply of new crypto equities.
Blockchain.com's filing is a contrarian signal. Filing into a market that has punished every predecessor suggests either a differentiated financial profile or a strategic bet on future market recovery. The confidential S-1 process preserves the option to withdraw.
Revenue model matters. Circle's interest-income model has provided relative stability compared to exchange-dependent peers. This divergence may inform which business models public markets are willing to support in the crypto sector.
Coinbase confirms the pattern. Even the sector's largest and most established public company reported a $394 million Q1 loss and a 31% revenue decline, confirming that crypto equity performance remains structurally coupled to underlying token market conditions.
The 2025–2026 crypto IPO cohort represents the first large-scale test of whether crypto-native companies can sustain public-market valuations. The results, so far, are uniformly negative. Every listing trades below its offer price or peak. The damage is not limited to shareholder returns — it has frozen the IPO pipeline and forced companies like Kraken, Ledger, and Consensys to wait for better conditions.
Blockchain.com's May 21 filing introduces a live experiment: whether a company with 95 million wallets, three years of adjusted profitability, and a halved private-market valuation can thread the needle that five predecessors could not. The confidential S-1 process gives it time. Whether the market gives it a price remains an open question.
The data suggests that until crypto trading volumes recover — or until companies demonstrate revenue models less dependent on token price cycles — public markets will continue to apply a structural discount to the sector. Circle's relative resilience points toward the kind of business model that might eventually break the pattern. The rest of the class has yet to prove it can.