Six crypto firms filed for or completed initial public offerings in 2026. The results, measured by market capitalization rather than press releases, are stark. BitGo, the first crypto IPO of the year, trades at $7.19 per share — 60% below its $18 offering price. Gemini, which debuted at $28 in Se...
"They haven't done well — we're just not in a hurry to get down that path." — Brad Garlinghouse, CEO, Ripple, at XRP Las Vegas 2026
Six crypto firms filed for or completed initial public offerings in 2026. The results, measured by market capitalization rather than press releases, are stark. BitGo, the first crypto IPO of the year, trades at $7.19 per share — 60% below its $18 offering price. Gemini, which debuted at $28 in September, has lost 84% of its value in four weeks and now carries a market capitalization of $580 million, down from $4.0 billion at listing. Circle Internet Group, the USDC issuer that listed in 2025, sits 56% below its post-IPO peak despite posting $2.75 billion in trailing twelve-month revenue.
Meanwhile, Kraken has delayed its listing to 2027 after pausing preparations in March 2026. Blockchain.com is targeting a $4–6 billion valuation for a year-end IPO — a 57–71% haircut from its $14 billion Series C in 2022. Ripple has declined to file at all, with CEO Brad Garlinghouse citing the poor post-listing performance of peers as justification.
The pattern is consistent: crypto companies that go public in 2026 see their valuations compressed within weeks. Public equity investors are applying discount rates to crypto businesses that private markets did not. The data suggests a structural repricing of what crypto infrastructure companies are worth when subjected to quarterly earnings scrutiny and public market liquidity.
The 2026 crypto IPO pipeline entered the year with momentum. Crypto firms had raised $3.4 billion in 2025 IPO rounds, according to DL News, and Circle's listing on the NYSE restored a measure of institutional confidence. BitGo opened the 2026 calendar with a January 22 NYSE debut. Gemini followed on September 12 on Nasdaq.
Both are now trading well below their offering prices.
| Company | Listing Date | IPO Price | Current Price (Oct 13) | Change | Market Cap | |---------|-------------|-----------|----------------------|--------|------------| | BitGo (BTGO) | Jan 22, 2026 | $18.00 | $7.19 | -60% | $867M | | Gemini (GEMI) | Sep 12, 2026 | $28.00 | $4.46 | -84% | $580M | | Circle (CRCL) | Apr 2025 | — | $83.87 | -56% from peak | $21.3B | | Coinbase (COIN) | Apr 2021 | $250.00 | $181.31 | -27% from IPO | $47.8B |
The two 2026 debutants have destroyed a combined $5.15 billion in market capitalization from their listing-day valuations. BitGo peaked at $2.59 billion on day one; Gemini peaked at $4.4 billion. Together they now trade at $1.45 billion.
BitGo Holdings priced its IPO at $18 per share on January 22, 2026, selling 11.8 million shares to raise $212.8 million. The stock opened at $22.43 — a 24.6% premium — and briefly touched $24.50 during its first trading session, according to Reuters.
By the second day of trading, BTGO had already fallen below its IPO price. As of October 6, 2026, shares closed at $7.19, a 60% decline from the offering price. The company's market capitalization stands at $867 million, with a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.1x, indicating ongoing losses.
Twelve analysts maintain a consensus "Strong Buy" rating with a $10.38 price target, according to MarketBeat. That target still sits 42% below the IPO price.
BitGo's thesis centered on being the "plumbing" of crypto — institutional-grade custody. According to CoinDesk, investors initially bought the infrastructure narrative. What they encountered post-listing was a custody business whose revenue streams proved more cyclical than the plumbing analogy suggested.
Gemini Space Station, Inc. represents the most dramatic valuation collapse among 2026 crypto listings. The Winklevoss twins' exchange initially filed for a $2.2 billion IPO, pricing shares between $17 and $19. Demand pushed the range upward to $24–$26, and the final pricing landed at $28 per share, valuing the company at $4.0 billion, according to Blockspace.
Opening-day trading on September 12 pushed shares to $37.01 — a 32% pop that gave Gemini a $4.4 billion valuation. Within four weeks, that figure had contracted to $580 million.
At $4.46 per share as of October 8, GEMI has lost 82.6% over its brief public life, according to StockAnalysis. Revenue paints a different picture: Gemini posted $206.7 million in trailing twelve-month revenue, a 51.5% increase year-over-year. The disconnect between revenue growth and equity destruction reflects the market's judgment that exchange revenue at Gemini's scale does not justify a multi-billion-dollar market capitalization.
CoinDesk reported on September 20 that the 80% stock decline has revived takeover speculation, with potential acquirers eyeing Gemini's regulatory licenses across multiple jurisdictions rather than its trading volumes.
Circle Internet Group (CRCL) listed on the NYSE in April 2025 and remains the closest thing to a success story in the crypto IPO cohort — but the word "success" requires qualification.
Circle trades at $83.87 as of October 12, 2026, with a market capitalization of $21.3 billion. That figure sits 56% below its post-IPO peak of $189.92. Revenue for the trailing twelve months reached $2.75 billion, a 63.9% increase year-over-year. Q2 2026 earnings per share of $0.18 met consensus estimates, with revenue of $701 million, up 7% year-over-year, according to the company's SEC filings.
USDC circulation rose 19% year-over-year to $73.3 billion despite a 40% crypto market decline, capturing nearly 70% of stablecoin transaction volume by June 2026. Circle's diversification efforts include the Arc Network, whose token pre-sale generated $242 million in Q2, and the company doubled full-year "other revenue" guidance to $310–$330 million.
The stock's decline from its peak suggests that public markets are recalibrating the multiple they assign to stablecoin issuance revenue — a business that is ultimately dependent on the interest rate environment and USDC's share of a $304 billion stablecoin market.
Coinbase Global (COIN) serves as the benchmark against which all crypto equity listings are measured. At $181.31 per share and a $47.8 billion market capitalization as of October 13, 2026, it remains the most valuable publicly traded crypto company by a wide margin.
The picture is not entirely favorable. Coinbase's market cap has declined 45.7% year-over-year, according to Macrotrends. First-half 2026 net revenue of $2.5 billion represents a 24% decline from $3.3 billion in H1 2025, driven by a $600 million drop in transaction revenue. Subscription and services revenue fell from $1.3 billion to $1.1 billion.
The Deribit acquisition, completed in August 2025 for $4.3 billion ($721.5 million cash, $3.57 billion in COIN stock), gave Coinbase an 87% share of Bitcoin options and 94% of Ether options markets. Institutional transaction revenue received a $68.5 million boost from derivatives in Q1 2026. In May 2026, the CFTC designated Coinbase Financial Markets as the first US-regulated futures commission merchant able to connect US clients directly to global derivatives markets.
The combined entity now offers spot, futures, options, and custody — a full-stack exchange. Whether that breadth justifies a $47.8 billion valuation when H1 revenue is declining is the question public markets are actively repricing.
Three major crypto firms have filed or considered filing — and then pulled back.
Kraken confidentially filed its S-1 with the SEC in November 2025. The company had raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation in a late-stage round led by Citadel Securities. By March 2026, Kraken paused listing preparations as crypto markets weakened. Co-CEO Arjun Sethi told DL News at Consensus Miami in May that the exchange was "about 80% ready" to go public. Secondary market transactions in April printed near $13.3 billion, a 33% discount to the primary round. Bloomberg reported in May that the listing may slip to 2027. The company cut 150 jobs while citing AI-driven efficiency gains, according to Tangem.
First-quarter 2026 revenue rose 3% to $507 million, with derivatives volume up 51%. Full-year 2025 revenue was $2.2 billion, a 33% increase. The financial profile is strong, but Kraken's management appears to have looked at BitGo and Gemini's post-listing performance and decided to wait.
Blockchain.com filed a confidential S-1 on May 21, 2026, and in September announced plans for a $500 million offering at a $4–6 billion valuation. The London-headquartered company previously commanded a $14 billion valuation in its February 2022 Series C. The proposed range implies a 57–71% markdown from peak private valuation — and the company has yet to make its financials public.
Ripple has not filed and appears unlikely to do so in the near term. CEO Brad Garlinghouse addressed the topic at XRP Las Vegas 2026, directly citing the poor post-listing performance of BitGo, Gemini, and Kraken. "They haven't done well — we're just not in a hurry to get down that path," he stated. Ripple's focus remains on compliance infrastructure and institutional XRP adoption.
The data reveals a consistent pattern: private crypto valuations overshoot public market reality by 50–80%.
Blockchain.com's $14 billion private valuation becomes $4–6 billion at IPO. Kraken's $20 billion round becomes $13.3 billion on secondary markets. Gemini priced at a $4 billion equity value and now trades at $580 million.
Several structural factors explain the gap:
Revenue cyclicality. Crypto exchange revenue correlates with trading volume, which correlates with crypto asset prices. Coinbase's H1 2026 revenue declined 24% year-over-year as crypto markets weakened. Public investors discount cyclical revenue streams more aggressively than venture investors, who underwrite to peak scenarios.
Lack of recurring revenue. Outside of Circle's interest income on USDC reserves and Coinbase's subscription revenue, most crypto firms lack predictable, recurring cash flows. Transaction fees are inherently variable. This makes DCF-based valuation difficult and leads to wider valuation bands.
Liquidity premium inversion. In private markets, illiquidity commands a discount. In practice, the opposite has occurred: private crypto rounds priced at premiums that public markets will not sustain once daily liquidity allows investors to exit.
Regulatory overhead. Public listing imposes quarterly reporting, SOX compliance, and continuous disclosure requirements. For companies still building compliance infrastructure, these costs are material and were not fully reflected in private valuations.
The 2026 crypto IPO wave has produced a dataset that contradicts the narrative of institutional maturation through public listing. Companies that have gone public are trading at fractions of their private valuations. Companies that have not yet listed are visibly adjusting their expectations downward or withdrawing entirely.
The economic reality is that crypto infrastructure businesses — exchanges, custodians, and stablecoin issuers — generate revenue streams that public markets consider cyclical, unpredictable, and overvalued by their private-market investors. Circle's stablecoin issuance business, with $2.75 billion in revenue and a $21 billion market cap, represents the strongest fundamental case, yet even it trades at roughly half its peak.
For companies still in the pipeline, the calculus has changed. Blockchain.com's decision to target a $4–6 billion range acknowledges this repricing. Kraken's delay to 2027 suggests management believes time — or a market recovery — may close the valuation gap. Ripple's outright refusal is the most candid assessment of what public markets are currently offering crypto companies: transparency requirements at a 60–80% discount to private valuations.
The data is clear. Public markets are not paying private-market prices for crypto equity. Whether that gap closes depends on whether crypto firms can demonstrate the earnings consistency that justifies their previous valuations — not their press releases.