In a significant move, Bullish (BLSH) has finalized an agreement to purchase Equiniti, a transfer agent and shareholder services firm, in a $4.25 billion transaction. This acquisition integrates crucial elements of traditional market infrastructure into Bullish’s digital asset platform, advancing its endeavors in tokenized securities.
CoinDesk’s parent company, Bullish, now gains a regulated transfer agent role, essential for public companies, complementing its existing services in tokenization, trading, and market infrastructure.
Equiniti maintains records for over 2,500 firms and nearly 20 million shareholders, managing about $500 billion annually in payments, effectively serving as the record-keeping system for equity ownership.
Together, these entities aim to provide a comprehensive platform encompassing token design, issuance, compliance, registry, and secondary trading. Bullish identifies this integration as addressing a critical void in blockchain-based capital markets: a transfer agent tailored for tokenized assets.
“Tokenization is set to revolutionize capital market operations, marking the defining infrastructure trend of the next 25 years,” stated Tom Farley, CEO of Bullish. “Achieving widespread institutional adoption demands end-to-end tokenization services, a unified ledger, and extensive issuer relationships. This merger fulfills all these requirements, positioning us uniquely to spearhead the shift toward tokenized securities,” he added.
This acquisition comes as traditional financial service providers continue exploring the tokenization of securities. For instance, Securitize, backed by BlackRock, alongside Computershare, plans to introduce parts of the $70 trillion U.S. stock market onto blockchain through tokenized equities, moving traditional infrastructure closer to blockchain technology.
Amid a broader trend of consolidation within the crypto sector, as companies strive to build comprehensive financial infrastructures, Bullish’s purchase of Equiniti stands out. After a slowdown in 2022-2023, mergers and acquisitions surged in 2025 with over 260 deals totaling approximately $8.6 billion, according to Pitchbook data—a significant increase from the previous year, driven by clearer regulations and renewed institutional interest.
Firms are increasingly acquiring capabilities in areas like custody, payments, tokenization, and derivatives, while larger entities absorb smaller ones to enhance distribution and compliance networks. High-profile deals such as Kraken’s venture into regulated derivatives and MoonPay’s expansion into payment infrastructure reflect a transition from speculative investments towards vertical integration and sustainable revenue models—a trend expected to persist through 2026.
The acquisition places Bullish, which went public last year, at the intersection of traditional equity infrastructure and blockchain technology. This enables features such as real-time cap table visibility, automated corporate actions, and faster settlement while enhancing liquidity for tokenized shares, especially for international investors.
Valued at $4.25 billion, this acquisition ranks among the largest crypto-linked deals ever, surpassing Coinbase’s $2.9 billion purchase of Deribit and Kraken’s $1.5 billion NinjaTrader deal. This reflects a shift in crypto M&A from exchanges acquiring other exchanges to a broader pursuit of regulated financial infrastructure.
Prior to the Equiniti acquisition, Bullish had acquired CoinDesk from Digital Currency Group in 2023, marking its entry into media, data, and index services alongside its trading operations. In 2024, it also purchased CCData, a U.K.-regulated benchmark administrator known for leading digital asset data and index solutions.
The Equiniti deal is slated to close in early 2027, pending regulatory approvals. Goldman Sachs advised Bullish on the transaction, while Evercore and FT Partners served as advisors to Siris Capital, an original investor in Equiniti since 2021.