Bullish On The Future Of Crypto

Summary Bullish (BLSH) is a digital asset platform targeting institutional investors, recently approved for US trading and expanding into derivatives. BLSH's revenue diversification through CoinDesk subscriptions and services provides stability amid volatile trading volumes, with strong recurring revenue ￰0￱ catalysts include US market entry, derivatives launch, and experienced management led by ex-NYSE President Tom Farley, plus regulatory approvals in major ￰1￱ a high valuation, I rate BLSH a buy, expecting significant growth as US adoption accelerates and institutional focus differentiates it from competitors. I am a believer in crypto and think it has a growing future in the markets.

I think it is still in the early stages and has a lot of room for ￰2￱ upon that belief I think there is money to be made, not just on crypto itself, but with companies operating in that ￰3￱ brings me to a company that I have been interested in, Bullish ( BLSH ). Bullish is a digital asset platform that facilitates crypto ￰4￱ is similar to Coinbase Global, Inc. ( COIN ). I purchased Coinbase years ago based upon thinking that crypto would continue to grow.

I was right on that assumption and the stock has been one of my better performing stocks. I know there are still some who do not think that crypto is a legitimate ￰5￱ this point it is hard to deny the amount of money being traded in the crypto market. I think the crypto market is positioned to continue its growth. I think Bullish is entering a competitive market but a growing ￰6￱ will be room for Bullish to grow within the crypto ￰7￱ company made its IPO and is in the early stages of its ￰8￱ company was recently approved to operate in the ￰9￱ is also opening up derivatives trading within the ￰10￱ overall market as well as these catalysts make me bullish on the potential of the ￰11￱ Overview Bullish Bullish operates through two different operations, Market Infrastructure and Information ￰12￱ Infrastructure is the trading Platform and Information Services houses ￰13￱ has a focus on institutional investors, which make up a growing and larger part of the ￰14￱ caters to them through the design and functionality of its platform, as well the low fees it charges for ￰15￱ is what partly sets it apart from some of the ￰16￱ entered the market with this as the ￰17￱ actually has higher trade volumes amongst institutional investors than it does individuals, but Coinbase was initially catering to the retail customer, and that is how the platform was initially designed and ￰18￱ makes money through its trading platform based upon a fee per ￰19￱ trading volume means more ￰20￱ company also operates ￰21￱ provides indices, data, and insights.

I think the biggest strength here is the Data side of the ￰22￱ can subscribe to this to get market data for ￰23￱ subscription revenue has been a strong point for the ￰24￱ company also makes money from ads that appear on the ￰25￱ Earnings Presentation Coindesk has allowed the company to diversify its ￰26￱ is a lot of volatility in trading volumes each month and ￰27￱ subscription revenue is consistent. I think CoinDesk also provides a point of legitimacy for the company and ￰28￱ and institutions use the website for news and ￰29￱ also holds events where traders come and learn and ￰30￱ and by extension Bullish is at the forefront with all of ￰31￱ provides a point of legitimacy and builds trust amongst users and ￰32￱ last important item to note is that the company holds a large amount of digital assets on its balance ￰33￱ the end of Q2 the company had just over $3 billion in digital assets, $2.6 billion of this being ￰34￱ Performance The company is in the early stages of its ￰35￱ with that early stage you are going to get some lumpy performance in the stock price and on ￰36￱ saw that with the Q2 earnings that were released in ￰37￱ was also the company’s first earnings report as a public ￰38￱ results are included in the table below: Company Earnings Presentation Transaction revenue actually declined in Q1 and Q2 of 2025 vs the prior ￰39￱ company already is small and you want to see growth, definitely a declining ￰40￱ number here is slightly misleading though as the company did see higher trading volume by dollar amount in both quarters as compared to the prior ￰41￱ means the company is getting a smaller markup on each ￰42￱ Media, or the website, also saw declining pageviews and unique monthly visitors.

CoinDesk's website is well established, and is not in a growth stage per ￰43￱ being said, the adoption of crypto is growing, which means more users would potentially be searching CoinDesk for information and ￰44￱ it is disappointing to see the numbers decline on that side of the ￰45￱ real revenue driver and value is within the Data segment on ￰46￱ can see the growth on that side of the business in the Subscription & Services ￰47￱ 1H25 revenues nearly reached the FY24 ￰48￱ does include revenue from the other CoinDesk applications but the Media side saw a decline, so it can be assumed the growth is being driven by ￰49￱ into Q3 the company gave strong guidance on the profit ￰50￱ Earnings Presentation The guidance is particularly strong on the adjusted net income and adjusted ￰51￱ volume is still lower but the US market is not included in ￰52￱ expect an increase starting in Q4 and throughout 2026.

Subscription, Services & Other is the real strong point ￰53￱ company is seeing strong recurring revenue from this line of ￰54￱ diversification provides a lot of value for a Bullish as it grows and builds its ￰55￱ I’m Bullish While revenues, particularly on the trading side, have not been as strong as I would like to see, I think there are a lot of catalysts to drive the ￰56￱ company is just coming off its IPO. A lot of time and energy gets spent in that ￰57￱ the company can focus its attention on growing the platform. I think the following are strong catalysts to do just ￰58￱ Trading Approval The first and by far the largest catalyst is that Bullish received approval in September for a BitLicense and Money Transmission License by ￰59￱ began spot trading in the US on October 1, ￰60￱ is a huge step for the ￰61￱ US is the largest trading country by volume in the world for ￰62￱ obviously opens up a large revenue source for the ￰63￱ revenue will not be seen until Q4 and even then it will be the first quarter that the market is ￰64￱ should also be noted that it is only available in 20 states to ￰65￱ will be opened up as time goes on.

I expect the adoption in Q4 to still be smaller, but through 2026 there will be strong adoption and revenue growth within the US market. I think this will not only push transaction volume up but also the subscription revenue for ￰66￱ company has a lot of opportunities to cross sell their ￰67￱ adoption of their exchange platform is adopted there will be more subscribers onboarded as ￰68￱ Trading Bullish announced, along with its US launch, the launch of crypto options trading to begin on October ￰69￱ expands the offering and options for ￰70￱ company now includes a “product suite encompassing spot, margin, perpetual futures, dated futures, and now, options”.

The derivatives market is larger than the spot trading ￰71￱ Q3 there was an estimated $4.7 trillion across the top 10 exchanges for spot trading volume, while there was $26 trillion in derivatives ￰72￱ is 5x the volume in the derivatives market as compared to the spot ￰73￱ you want to be an institutional exchange platform then you have to offer derivatives or traders will go ￰74￱ will bring more users to the platform and also increase revenue with additional trading ￰75￱ and Regulatory Approval One key item with the company is the ￰76￱ is a key item that I often feel is overlooked when investing in a company. A company with good management will consistently ￰77￱ found a CEO who happens to know a thing or two about financial ￰78￱ Farley, CEO of Bullish, has overseen 10 regulated exchanges or ￰79￱ was recently the President of the New York Stock ￰80￱ understands the business and the legal ￰81￱ company has applied and received licenses from many ￰82￱ company noted during the conference call, “We hold what I believe to be the 4 most respected and difficult to obtain crypto licenses in the world from the European Union by way of Germany BaFin, from Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and as of yesterday, New York State, a BitLicense.” This is one of the ways that the company has been able to establish ￰83￱ takes away the regulatory uncertainty which is important for institutional ￰84￱ is playing a key role in making sure the company is able to achieve regulatory acceptance as well as build itself in a way to ￰85￱ Thiel Effect There is some Peter Thiel effect in the current stock ￰86￱ has a high valuation in part because Peter Thiel is backing the ￰87￱ man obviously has a good track record, Palantir being the most recent big ￰88￱ for a newer company this can push the stock price to higher valuations than it would have based upon the ￰89￱ being said, there is also a reason for this ￰90￱ being he has had massive success as an ￰91￱ it makes sense to invest alongside him and his companies.

I don’t think this should just be discounted as a company with a high multiple due to Peter Thiel, there is a reason for that high multiple. I see it as a ￰92￱ I could have purchased the stock at a lower price if he was not backing the company, but I also might not have even heard about it. I also would have less confidence in its ￰93￱ The company is still a small company competing in a market that is highly ￰94￱ are large risks facing the ￰95￱ is a lot of market competition from established players in the ￰96￱ platforms already have users and it is much harder to bring them over to a new platform. I think Bullish has attempted to differentiate itself and target a specific demographic, which will allow it to ￰97￱ the company will have to ￰98￱ has been slow for the crypto ￰99￱ has caused a lot of uncertainty amongst ￰100￱ it seems that more and more regulatory bodies are adopting pro crypto regulation, there is the risk that governments may turn sour on ￰101￱ can also be slow causing the industry to be limited on its ￰102￱ Bullish has entered a competitive market that is also growing.

I think the company has done so in a way that distinguishes it from many of the ￰103￱ is putting an emphasis on institutional ￰104￱ is a lot more money on the institutional side than the retail ￰105￱ has achieved the necessary legal approvals from the largest trading ￰106￱ reduces risk for ￰107￱ has tailored and built its platform to better accommodate larger investors as ￰108￱ the company is in the early stages I think these early investments will pay off as the company ￰109￱ reported some lumpy results on the revenue and growth ￰110￱ has some strong catalysts that will drive revenues going forward, particularly the approval in the ￰111￱ company is led by a strong management team that knows how to navigate the regulatory world as well as ￰112￱ valuation on the stock is not cheap by any ￰113￱ currently trades at an expected 2025 PE of ￰114￱ is expected to drop to 70 next ￰115￱ is expected to grow at 32% in 2026 as well.

I think with a full year of being in the US market with derivatives available the company will beat those ￰116￱ company is just getting ￰117￱ is receiving its approvals and now it is time for the company to ￰118￱ the stock is not cheap I think the premium is warranted due to the potential growth going forward. I am bullish on Bullish and rate it a buy. I would look for good entry points as there is volatility on the stock.