After a three-year freeze, crypto companies are quietly re-entering IPO territory. The shift is not speculative. It is structural. These firms are no longer racing momentum or chasing retail exuberance. They are responding to regulation that can be modeled, balance sheets that need permanent capital, and institutional clients that now dominate demand.
The reopening of the IPO window has been accelerated by a political reset following the re-election of Donald Trump. Markets price the future, not the present, and a second Trump administration recalibrated expectations around financial oversight. Lighter-touch enforcement, slower rulemaking, and a higher tolerance for experimentation reduced the risk premium that had kept bankers, lawyers, and boards on the sidelines. The result was not exuberance, but permission to move.
Regulation itself also stopped being an existential threat. From 2022 through much of 2024, enforcement-by-lawsuit froze IPO activity across the sector. That phase has ended. Clearer frameworks around custody, stablecoins, and broker-dealer status replaced regulatory shock with regulatory predictability. Public markets do not require perfect rules. They require rules that can be understood, disclosed, and priced.
Capital pressure is another driver. Late-stage private funding is no longer friendly money. Many crypto firms are carrying aging cap tables, expensive preferred equity, impatient investors, and limited secondary liquidity. An IPO converts paper valuations into permanent capital while providing exits without forced discounts.
Here are five major crypto companies eying introduction to the public markets in 2026.
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Bitpanda
The European exchange Bitpanda is emerging as one of the most credible crypto IPO candidates of the next cycle, reflecting how the sector’s public-market ambitions have matured since the last boom. Founded in Vienna in 2014 by Eric Demuth, Paul Klanschek, and Christian Trummer, Bitpanda was built with a distinctly European emphasis on regulation, licensing, and multi-asset access rather than rapid global expansion at any cost.
Bitpanda operates as a regulated digital investment platform offering cryptocurrencies, stocks, ETFs, commodities, and precious metals under a single interface. That breadth matters. Unlike exchanges that remain tightly coupled to crypto trading volumes, Bitpanda positions itself as a full-spectrum retail and institutional investment gateway designed to operate inside Europe’s regulatory perimeter. The company holds multiple licenses across EU jurisdictions and has consistently aligned its business model with evolving frameworks such as MiCA, giving it a compliance profile public investors can underwrite.
The company is reportedly targeting a Frankfurt IPO in the first half of 2026, with valuation estimates ranging from USD$4.7 billion to USD$5.8 billion. Frankfurt, rather than New York, fits the strategy. A European listing allows Bitpanda to lean into its regulatory credentials and market itself as an EU-native financial platform rather than a crypto disruptor seeking retroactive approval.
Bitpanda’s investor base reinforces that positioning. The company has raised capital from a roster of institutional backers, including Valar Ventures, a growth fund co-founded by Peter Thiel. Thiel’s involvement, even indirectly, signals a focus on durable financial infrastructure rather than short-cycle speculation. Other investors have included major European venture funds and strategic partners tied to traditional finance.
Consensys
Consensys is positioning itself as one of the most consequential potential crypto IPOs of the next cycle, not because it operates an exchange, but because it underpins much of the Ethereum ecosystem itself. Founded in 2014 by Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin, Consensys was built to provide the software, tooling, and infrastructure required to make blockchain networks usable at scale.
The company is best known for MetaMask, the world’s most widely used self-custody crypto wallet, which serves tens of millions of users globally. Beyond MetaMask, Consensys develops enterprise-grade blockchain infrastructure, developer tools, and compliance-focused solutions used by financial institutions, governments, and large corporations. Its offerings include blockchain node services, smart contract tooling, security audits, and privacy-preserving transaction layers—critical plumbing rather than consumer-facing speculation.
That distinction is central to Consensys’ public-market pitch. Rather than selling exposure to token prices, the company positions itself as a picks-and-shovels provider for decentralized finance, tokenized assets, and on-chain settlement. As regulatory scrutiny intensified between 2022 and 2024, Consensys leaned further into compliance, risk tooling, and institutional integration, aligning its products with frameworks that traditional finance understands.
Consensys has reportedly engaged major global banks to advise on a potential public listing targeted for 2026.
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Falcon X
The prospective IPO for institutional crypto prime broker FalconX reflects the growing convergence between digital assets and traditional capital markets. Unlike retail-facing exchanges, FalconX serves institutions that require liquidity, credit, and execution at scale.
Founded in 2018, FalconX operates as a full-service prime brokerage for digital assets, providing hedge funds, asset managers, proprietary trading firms, and market makers with integrated access to crypto markets. Its core services include trade execution across centralized and over-the-counter venues, access to deep global liquidity, financing and credit facilities, custody connectivity, and portfolio reporting. The firm’s value proposition is not price discovery for retail traders, but operational efficiency and risk management for sophisticated counterparties.
FalconX’s client base reportedly includes large crypto-native hedge funds, quantitative trading firms, and traditional asset managers allocating to digital assets for the first time. While the company does not publicly disclose its full roster, industry reporting has linked FalconX to institutional participants such as Brevan Howard Digital, GSR, and other multi-strategy funds seeking professional-grade crypto infrastructure. That positioning places FalconX closer to a digital-assets equivalent of a Wall Street prime broker than a crypto exchange.
Importantly, FalconX does not focus on retail investors. Its business is almost entirely institutional, with no consumer trading app or direct-to-retail brokerage offering. That separation reduces regulatory complexity and positions FalconX with counterparties that already operate under for compliance, reporting, and capital requirements.
As institutional adoption accelerated following the approval of Bitcoin ETFs and broader acceptance of crypto as a balance-sheet asset, demand for prime brokerage services increased. Institutions want consolidated trading, transparent financing terms, and counterparty risk management they recognize from traditional markets.
An IPO would provide FalconX with permanent capital to expand credit offerings, deepen liquidity relationships. It would also compete directly with legacy financial institutions entering digital assets.
Blockchain.com
Blockchain.com is one of the longest-standing names in the crypto industry. It is now preparing for a U.S. IPO after previously exploring a SPAC route.
Unlike many firms born during later bull markets, Blockchain.com’s history is intertwined with Bitcoin’s earliest public adoption. It therefore has brand recognition that extends well beyond crypto-native audiences. Founded in 2011 as Blockchain.info, the company began as a simple block explorer, a tool that allows users to view Bitcoin transactions in real time.
At a moment when Bitcoin was still obscure and technical, Blockchain.com provided transparency and legitimacy by making the network understandable. That role made it a default reference point for early users, developers, and journalists trying to explain how Bitcoin worked.
From that foundation, the company expanded into wallets, becoming one of the most widely used self-custody solutions globally. Over time, it layered in brokerage services, enabling users to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies directly.
As the market matured, Blockchain.com pushed further into institutional territory, building an asset management arm, custody services, and trading infrastructure aimed at hedge funds, family offices, and corporate clients. Today, Blockchain.com operates across retail and institutional segments.
It has tens of millions of wallets created worldwide and a global footprint spanning the U.S., Europe, and emerging markets. That scale matters for public investors. It represents a diversified revenue base tied not just to trading volumes, but also to custody, lending, and institutional relationships. Looking ahead, a public listing would give Blockchain.com permanent capital to expand regulated financial services, deepen institutional offerings, and potentially position itself as a bridge between traditional finance and digital assets. Its long operating history, brand familiarity, and early role in Bitcoin’s transparency narrative differentiate it from newer entrants.
The battle with the SEC is won: Gemini and Grayscale
Two of the most recognizable names in U.S. crypto, Grayscale and Gemini, are finally approaching the public markets after spending much of the past decade fighting regulators for legitimacy. Their long-awaited IPO efforts aren’t entirely a victory lap. Instead they seem to be more of an institutional concession, as crypto firms that survived regulatory hostility are now being absorbed into the financial mainstream.
Grayscale, the world’s largest crypto asset manager, has reportedly submitted registration paperwork ahead of a potential public listing as regulatory clarity around ETFs and custody improves. For years, Grayscale functioned as a workaround for institutional exposure. It offered trusts that tracked Bitcoin and other digital assets when spot ETFs were blocked.
That strategy put the firm in repeated conflict with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, culminating in a landmark court victory that helped force the approval of U.S. Bitcoin ETFs. A public listing would formalize Grayscale’s transition from regulatory edge case to fully normalized asset manager.
Gemini’s path has been similarly bruising. Founded by Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, the exchange has long emphasized compliance, custody, and regulatory engagement. Gemini has confidentially filed to go public, though timing and valuation remain undisclosed. Its pitch to investors centers on trust infrastructure including regulated custody and institutional trading. It also needs to be in alignment with U.S. financial rules rather than aggressive token listings.
Both companies spent years arguing that crypto could not mature without regulatory recognition. Now, after ETF approvals, clearer custody rules, and a shift in enforcement posture, that recognition is arriving—slowly and grudgingly.
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