TL;DR
- DefiLlama shows $3.4B raised in 2025 crypto IPO rounds; 2026 candidates emphasize compliance and infrastructure linking TradFi and onchain for public allocations.
- Kraken targets 1H 2026 after a November 2025 S-1, while Consensys maps to MetaMask, Infura, Linea, and a $7B valuation, mid-2026.
- BitGo targets Q1 2026; Ledger monetises Ledger Live recurring products; Animoca plans a 2026 Nasdaq reverse merger, and Bithumb signals Korea’s retail demand.
Crypto stormed onto Wall Street in 2025, and the calendar is already pointing to a bigger encore. DefiLlama data shows digital-asset businesses raised $3.4 billion through IPO rounds, with Circle, Bullish, Figure, and Gemini among the heavy hitters; Circle and Bullish each pulled over $1 billion. The 2026 pipeline is not just larger, it is more compliance-shaped. Venture investor Samantha Lewis of Mercury Fund says the common thread is infrastructure that routes capital between traditional balance sheets and onchain markets. Public investors are being asked to price risk management as a product feature, not a footnote. That shift could redefine which crypto brands earn a Wall Street premium.
Six crypto IPO candidates for 2026
Kraken is positioned as the top listing. After filing an S-1 with the SEC in November 2025, the US exchange is targeting a debut in 2026’s first half. It doubled revenue to $1.5 billion in 2024 and secured a $20 billion valuation in a round led by Citadel Securities. A compliance-first posture is being converted into distribution, including a MiCA licence in Europe and derivatives trading, alongside staking and NFTs. Consensys is reportedly working with JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs on a mid-2026 IPO, pivoting around MetaMask and Infura; MetaMask added native Bitcoin support in 2025, has 30 million monthly users, and carries a $7 billion valuation.
BitGo would put the custody layer on public rails. The Goldman Sachs-backed firm filed an updated S-1A in late 2025, aiming for a Q1 2026 listing after delays caused by the US government shutdown. Its revenue has quadrupled over the past two years, driven by institutional custody and regulated staking, and the latest assessment values it at $1.75 billion. Security-first infrastructure can read like a lower-beta crypto proxy for banks and hedge funds. Ledger is preparing for a major 2026 funding round; it says it has sold more than 6 million hardware wallets and expanded Ledger Live into recurring products like seed phrase recovery, software integrations.
Animoca Brands brings the consumer risk premium. It is expected to list on Nasdaq in 2026 via a reverse merger with Currenc Group, after building one of the largest Web3 gaming portfolios, with stakes in dozens of tokenised games and metaverse projects. In 2025, Animoca streamlined operations and pivoted messaging around digital property rights. Its expected $6 billion valuation hinges on monetising equity stakes and in-game economies while navigating tokenomics. Bithumb is a proxy for Korea’s retail-heavy market, targeting a South Korean exchange IPO by end-2025; it regained 25% market share in 2024 and chose Samsung Securities as underwriter, with 18 million crypto users in the country.
