This is a segment from the Empire newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.
We talked a whole lot about Circle last week, and I’ve already mentioned that the success of the IPO opened up doors for other firms (take a look at Gemini, for example, which announced it confidentially filed an S-1 with the SEC earlier this year).
But while there’s a ton of appetite on the public markets, the question has to be asked: Who’s actually ready to premiere on a public stage?
Dragonfly’s Rob Hadick poured some cold water on the hopes and dreams of a crypto IPO season on this week’s Empire episode. He and Haun Ventures’ Diogo Monica noted that most crypto companies are a tad smaller than public markets typically prefer.
To put that into perspective, we’d be talking about hundreds of millions raised in an IPO in comparison to the billion-dollar Circle debut. Hadick said that the IPO market is “definitely open.”
But that doesn’t mean that the firms are ready. Hadick expressed doubt that firms like Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan would be advising companies like Fireblocks to go public.
“Fireblocks is not there. And that’s true of Chainalysis, which is a great SaaS business. That’s true of most of the other people we talked about. Kraken is a different story. And you know, I expect we’ll see them [go] public. Maybe not this year, but maybe next year,” Hadick added.
However, because of the appetite, there could be a slew of crypto IPOs that rush to the public markets before they’ve hit the typical maturity points.
Hadick wouldn’t be surprised if firms talk to underwriters who promise to take them public through either a direct listing or go the more typical route like Circle and just aim to raise far lower (eyeing a $100 or $200 million raise versus billions).
And, to be fair, crypto’s not a special snowflake when it comes to massive IPO success. Every industry that sees one company’s success has other players seriously thinking about how they can capitalize on the momentum.
Generally, though, at least in my experience, it’s pretty rare to see firms capture the same fanfare or financial backing when they’re looking to hit copy and paste on another company’s playbook. But crypto thrives on smashing expectations, so perhaps that bodes well.
Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:
