Bullish Crypto Exchange in Talks to Merge With SPAC

Nicholas Pongratz
·2 min read

Crypto exchange Bullish could potentially merge with the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Far Peak Acquisition Corp.

According to anonymous sources, the two companies are in talks that could value Bullish at as much as $12 billion. An agreement could be reached within the next few weeks, although bitcoin’s fluctuating price could affect the final valuation.

Investors have expressed interest to the SPAC in a private investment in public equity (PIPE) transaction to fund a deal. The size of the PIPE could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. SPACs are companies listed on a stock exchange that acquire public companies, in practice enabling them to go public without undergoing the traditional process.

Far Peak raised about $550 million in a New York listing in December, with the intention of targeting fintech companies. The SPAC is led by ex-NYSE Group President Tom Farley, and David Bonanno, a former managing director at hedge fund Third Point LLC.

Bullish crypto exchange

Blockchain platform Block.one, backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, launched crypto exchange Bullish last month. Block.one capitalized Bullish with approximately $10 billion in digital assets and cash. This included 64,000 BTC valued at around $9.7 billion, $100 million in cash, and 20 million EOS tokens.

Besides Thiel, Block.one is supported by hedge fund managers Alan Howard and Louis Bacon. They also contributed to an additional $300 million strategic investment round. The billionaires will additionally serve as senior advisors, in addition to acting as primary investors.

Bullish seeks to combine the performance, privacy and compliance of traditional exchanges with vertically integrated user benefits of decentralized finance. The project offers several features that have traditionally only been offered in traditional finance. These include automated market making, lending, and portfolio management tools. It will also offer deeper liquidity for digital assets.

Bullish could also potentially revitalize Block.one’s EOS technology. It drew considerable flak from running the world’s biggest ICO in 2018. While they used some of the $4 billion on the EOS blockchain, much of it was invested in more traditional assets like government bonds.