Bullish (BLSH), the parent company of CoinDesk, has announced a definitive agreement to acquire transfer agent and shareholder services giant Equiniti in a transaction valued at $4.25 billion. The deal represents a major step in Bullish’s strategy to build an end-to-end tokenized securities infrastructure, merging a regulated transfer agent—a critical function for public companies—with its existing trading, tokenization, and market technology stack.
Equiniti currently maintains records for more than 2,500 companies and 20 million shareholders, processing approximately $500 billion in annual payments. Its client base includes nearly 3,000 public companies, among them Berkshire Hathaway and Moody’s, making it a core piece of traditional equity ownership infrastructure. By folding Equiniti into its platform, Bullish aims to offer services spanning token design, issuance, compliance, registry, and secondary trading—all on a unified blockchain-based ledger.
Tokenization is a once-in-a-generation shift in how capital markets operate,
said Tom Farley, CEO of Bullish. Broad adoption at institutional scale requires three things: end-to-end tokenization services, a single, unified ledger, and issuer relationships at scale. This combination delivers all three, and I believe it uniquely positions us to lead the transition to tokenized securities.
The acquisition arrives amid a broader crypto M&A wave. After a slowdown in 2022–2023, dealmaking rebounded sharply in 2025 with over 260 transactions totaling about $8.6 billion—roughly four times the prior year’s figure, according to PitchBook data. Companies are racing to acquire capabilities in custody, payments, tokenization, and derivatives, as highlighted by recent moves from Kraken and MoonPay. Bullish’s Equiniti deal would rank among the largest crypto-linked acquisitions ever, surpassing Coinbase’s $2.9 billion purchase of Deribit and Kraken’s $1.5 billion deal for NinjaTrader.
The combined entity plans to enable 24/7 trading, real-time settlement, stablecoin-based payments, and features like real-time cap table visibility and automated corporate actions, while supporting liquidity in tokenized shares—especially for non-U.S. investors. Bullish, which went public in 2025, previously acquired CoinDesk and data provider CCData. The Equiniti transaction is expected to close in early 2027, pending regulatory approvals. Goldman Sachs advised Bullish, while Evercore and FT Partners advised Siris Capital, Equiniti’s founding investor since 2021.
