While most attention is directed toward Bitcoin, major altcoins, and, unfortunately, many meme coins, there is an increasingly profitable way to gain crypto exposure without having to hold these assets directly.
With the meteoric rise of Strategy (MSTR), up by 3,350% over the past five years, investors are on the lookout for other similar stocks that could outperform cryptocurrencies.
For those who prefer a more conventional investing approach via brokerage firms, you will see a surge of investment options as established cryptocurrency and blockchain technology companies go public.
Before covering some of the most anticipated upcoming listings, let’s look at two related acronyms:
– An Initial Public Offering (IPO) is when a private company submits a registration statement, including a prospectus, to the SEC and partners with an investment bank to underwrite the offering. This process allows the company to raise capital by selling ownership shares to the public
– A Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), established by investors, conducts a rapid initial public offering (IPO) to raise funds for acquiring a private company and subsequently listing it on a public stock exchange.
For the record, many businesses prefer SPACs over IPOs; however, IPOs are more commonly used in the media.
Let’s begin.
Public listings to watch
Here are entities that have recently gone public or will do so soon:
Twenty One Capital
A massive partnership between Tether, the majority owner, and Jack Mallers, the CEO of Strike and a renowned Bitcoin advocate, under the auspices of Cantor Equity Partners, has led to the formation of a new Bitcoin-focused company, Twenty One.
It currently holds 31,500 BTC, but is expected to grow rapidly over the next 12 to 18 months.
What makes this firm unique are its Bitcoin Return Rate (BRR) and Bitcoin-per-share (BPS) metrics, sometimes presented as satoshis per share.
For the uninitiated, there are 100,000,000 satoshis per BTC.
“What BPS tells you is how much Bitcoin, on a fully diluted basis, your share represents.”
It touts itself as a Bitcoin-native company. While Strategy (MSTR) has rapidly transitioned to a Bitcoin-focused entity, currently managing over 568,000 BTC, valued at $60.2 billion, it provides business intelligence solutions for various industries.
Considering Tether now manages over 100,000 BTC (as of April 1, 2025) and has committed to using up to 15% of its net realised operating profits towards buying more BTC, this will solidify its dominance in both stablecoin issuance and as a Bitcoin whale.
Check out Jack Mallers’ presentation about Twenty One for a deeper dive into the enterprise and how it differs from Bitcoin corporations and spot ETFs.
Ripple
The most high-profile company on this list, Ripple, is likely to IPO within the next 12 months, now that the SEC lawsuit is on the cusp of being resolved…any minute now.
Even though a federal judge declined Ripple and the SEC’s $50M settlement proposal, it’s a relatively small issue compared to having been dragged through the mud for several years, particularly under the former US SEC Chair, Gary Gensler.
Building on rumours about the SWIFT payment system adopting XRP, I imagine Ripple will gradually become more closely aligned with this network and will eventually accept the token for settling international payments.
One question that many XRP and Ripple fans have in mind is how much the company could be initially valued at once it goes public.
As we don’t have an official announcement about this event, information is limited and likely to be inaccurate. However, I came across an interesting tweet from high-profile pro-XRP attorney John Deaton on this topic, posted four months ago.
According to @PeterLBrandt (see 👇), if XRP breaks upwards out of its consolidation pattern (“half mast flag”), a $500B market cap is possible (NOTE: he does not say likely).
A $500B market cap equals a $8.72 XRP price. IF XRP reaches that valuation AND, IF ETH fails to rally,…
— John E Deaton (@JohnEDeaton1) January 7, 2025
Circle
With a good possibility that senators will pass the Stable Act (the “Stablecoin Tethering and Bank Licensing Enforcement Act” in the coming days, this will provide regulatory clarity for stablecoins in the US, working wonders for Tether, Circle and other stablecoin issuers.
Last month, Ripple offered to acquire Circle, which manages USDC, for just $5 billion.
Unsurprisingly, this proposal was rejected as it appears to have undervalued Circle. The stablecoin issuer generated $1.68 billion in revenue last year, up from $1.45 billion in 2023, a figure that should steadily grow as stablecoins become prominent worldwide.
While Circle will continue to thrive on the back of growing stablecoin adoption worldwide, especially due to the thousands of stablecoin/crypto trading pairs across hundreds of exchanges, don’t disregard the rising competition in this space.
Over the past 12 months, we’ve seen more integration of PayPal USD (PYUSD), the publicity and sharp uptick of World Liberty Financial’s USD1, with a $2B market cap just weeks after launching, FDUSD, the launch of Ripple’s first stablecoin, RLUSD, and the steady growth of Ethena USD (USDe)*.
*Strictly speaking, USDe is a synthetic dollar, not a stablecoin, as explained here.
Kraken
I believe a Kraken IPO will be approved sooner than expected. Discussions about this date back to June 2021, around the same time when Coinbase (COIN) listed on the Nasdaq.
I came across information from Nasdaq Private Market, a key provider of technology solutions for the private markets, which offers a Kraken company profile, valuations, and relevant financial statistics tailored to institutional investors.
As Kraken and other major exchanges have continuously grown their user bases and have evolved with the crypto market, it makes sense for it, as one of the oldest actively operating crypto exchanges in the world, to join Coinbase in going public.
With the rise of extensive trading and lending options, mining pools, OTC buying and selling, NFTs and other Web3 services, centralised exchanges have become much more than simple on- and off-ramps for retail and institutional clients.
Galaxy Digital Holdings
The company, headed by crypto billionaire Mike Novogratz, launched on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange last week, under the ticker symbol GLXY.
In an interview last week with Andrew Ross Sorkin from CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Novogratz reflected on the political challenges facing crypto up until recently.
“The four years under Biden were un-American when it came to crypto. It was just misery. This (Trump) administration has been amazing for the space in general…What I’m proud about is that the core of the Democrats, Senator Warner, Senator Gallegos, really leading this GENIUS Bill, amongst others, have said crypto should be bipartisan.”
It’s been only three business days since the public listing, so it’s still too early to gauge its performance.
Additional thoughts
Many will view Coinbase’s 2021 IPO as a potential indicator of when these companies opt to go public, or when they should not do so.
Still, I don’t think this is a reliable indicator, especially as the market has matured in recent years and regulations have started to “legitimise” the asset class, in the eyes of more laypeople.
It’s also a mixed bag in ROIs for various BTC/crypto stocks, with certain stock prices not making sense. For example:
– CleanSpark, Inc. (CLSK), Iren Energy (IREN), MARA Holdings (MARA), Riot Blockchain (RIOT), and other major Bitcoin mining firms are all down more than 40% from their 2024 peaks, despite expanding their mining capacity, improving mining efficiencies, and growing their BTC holdings, which have significantly benefited from a $105K BTC price.
Before you beat me to it, yes, the 2024 Bitcoin Block Reward Halving would have had an obvious impact on profitability. Still, these halvings are predictable events and don’t fully justify the share prices’ lacklustre performance in recent months.
Ultimately, this barely matters if you’re focused on the long term. If anything, lower crypto and stock prices are a blessing in disguise.
– Coinbase (COIN) remains 30% below its launch price, despite Bitcoin being 50% above its 2021 cycle peak of $69,000.
Mind you, its recent addition to the S&P 500 Index led to a 25% price increase the following day, only to be impacted by news about rogue non-US Coinbase employees or contractors being bribed to disclose sensitive customer data.
How can users ensure that their details are secure when they are required to complete Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) procedures, which all regulated crypto exchanges and similar institutions are mandated to do?
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There is a notable omission from this list, one that I believe will eventually become public: Binance.
However, I don’t see it happening for a few years due to previous US SEC lawsuits involving Binance and Changpeng Zhao, which led to CZ being incarcerated for four months in 2024 and the world’s leading exchange being fined $4.3 billion by the US Government in November 2023.
While there is a Binance.US exchange for Americans, clients in 15 states and territories are still unable to use it, including New York and Texas. It operates independently of the primary, international version with which people are familiar.
In conclusion, I am thrilled to see these companies going public because it allows us, savvy retail investors, to further diversify our exposure to regulated BTC, cryptocurrency, and blockchain technology stocks, many of which will emerge as new types of tech behemoths akin to the Magnificent Seven.
Which other crypto companies are you following that are set to go public soon? Comment below.
P.S. A quick shout-out to Tony Edward – Thinking Crypto for some of the information featured here. Thanks mate.
You might also be interested in these stories:
https://medium.com/@cryptowithlorenzo/bitcoin-is-going-to-zero-5562122f5481
Disclaimers
- N.B. None of this is financial advice; I am not a financial advisor. This content is for educational purposes only. You are ultimately responsible for your investments.
- My opinions may not reflect those of any news outlet, person, organisation, or other entity listed here.
- Please conduct thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency assets, staking, NFTS, or other products associated with this space.
- Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum account for approximately half of my crypto holdings, followed by Cardano (ADA) and XRP, which make up another 25%.
- I also own CLSK, IREN, and COIN stocks, in order of USD value.
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