BitGo Becomes First Crypto IPO in 2026, Raising $212.8M at $18.49 Closing Price

Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author | jk

Yesterday, the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange welcomed...First Cryptocurrency Industry IPO of the New Year: The Bell Rings for the Listing of Digital Asset Custody Service Provider BitGo Holdings (NYSE: BTGO)This industry leader, established in 2013 and managing over $100 billion in assets, officially entered the capital market with an issue price of $18 per share, raising a total of $212.8 million and achieving a valuation exceeding $2 billion.

**What is BitGo? Why haven't retail investors heard much about it?** **BitGo** is a well-known **digital asset custodian and security company** that provides institutional-grade security solutions for cryptocurrency assets. It was founded in 2014 and is based in the United States

BitGo was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in South Dakota, USA. It is the world's largest independent digital asset custodian. The company was co-founded by Mike Belshe and Ben Davenport, both pioneers in internet technology. Belshe was one of the first engineers on the Google Chrome browser team and a primary author of the HTTP/2.0 protocol.

Currently,BitGo serves over 4,900 institutional clients globally, managing assets exceeding $10.4 billion, with clients spanning more than 50 countries.The company handles about 20% of the global Bitcoin transaction volume, with clients including cryptocurrency exchanges, hedge funds, asset management firms, and traditional institutions such as Nike and NYU Langone Medical Center.

BitGo's core businesses include: digital asset custody (cold storage and hot wallets), the BitGo Prime trading and lending platform, the Go Network real-time settlement network, staking services, and exclusive custody for Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC).It is worth mentioning that the company has maintained a perfect record of zero safety incidents for 12 years.

In terms of regulatory compliance, BitGo received approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in December 2025, becoming the first cryptocurrency custodian to obtain a federal banking charter. Additionally, it holds operational licenses in multiple jurisdictions, including the EU's MiCA license and the VARA license in the UAE.

BitGo's stock opened at $22.43, up 24.6% from its $18 offering price. During the trading session, it hit an intraday high of $24.50, expanding the gain to 36%. However, the stock sharply reversed course near the closing bell and closed at $18.49, reflecting a modest increase of just 2.7% from the offering price.

The IPO price was set at $18 per share, higher than the previously anticipated range of $15 to $17. The company offered approximately 11.82 million Class A ordinary shares, raising about $212.8 million in total. Based on the offering price, the company's valuation is approximately $2.08 billion, an increase from its $1.75 billion valuation during the C-round financing in August 2023.

Goldman Sachs and Citigroup served as joint lead underwriters for this IPO.It is reported that the IPO was oversubscribed by about 13 times.

According to the prospectus disclosure, BitGo achieved revenue of $308 million in fiscal year 2024, with a net profit of $15.66 million.Successfully reversed a $2.1 million loss in the 2023 fiscal year.In the first half of 2025, the company's revenue surged to $4.19 billion, a sharp increase of approximately 274% year-over-year. However, its net profit dropped to $12.6 million, a decline of 59% year-over-year, mainly due to significant investments in infrastructure development and team expansion.

It is worth noting that BitGo's revenue composition is relatively unique. According to accounting standards, the company must record the full amount of customer transactions as revenue, while recording the cost of asset purchases as costs. Therefore, although the reported revenue reaches hundreds of millions of dollars, the actual net income after deducting costs is significantly smaller.For example, in the first half of 2025, the net revenue from digital asset sales was only $34.7 million, the net revenue from staking was $40.5 million, and the net revenue from stablecoins as a service was $2.7 million.

The company's operating expenses in 2024 reached $3.09 billion, of which the cost of digital asset sales accounted for $2.53 billion. Subscription and service revenue remained relatively stable, reaching $120.7 million in 2024, representing a 56% year-over-year increase.

Although its first-day performance was lackluster, several analysts still view BitGo as a promising long-term investment. Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at investment management firm VanEck, set a price target of $26.50, representing a 47% increase from the IPO price, which corresponds to a market capitalization of approximately $3 billion.

Sigel pointed out that BitGo is the first publicly traded company to offer pure custody business exposure, with its custody and staking services contributing more than 80% of its revenue. This provides it with a competitive advantage over rivals like Coinbase or Galaxy Digital, which are heavily reliant on trading volumes.Stronger income stability and higher profit qualityHe expects BitGo to generate over $400 million in revenue and $120 million in EBITDA by 2028.

"BitGo maintains a spotless security record and has established key competitive barriers in regulatory compliance," said Sigel."Among digital asset projects with a market capitalization exceeding $2 billion, the vast majority have never generated even a single penny of net profit for their holders. In contrast, equity in BitGo is clearly a superior investment."

He also added that if the price of Bitcoin rises by 33%, the 2,369 Bitcoins held by BitGo would add $72 million in value to the company, further supporting its $3 billion fair valuation.

BitGo's IPO is seen as a landmark event signaling the revival of the cryptocurrency IPO market after the winter of Q4 2025.In the first half of 2025, stablecoin issuer Circle (valued at around $7 billion at its IPO), exchange Gemini, Bullish, and several other cryptocurrency-related companies successfully went public. However, as Bitcoin fell 29% from its historical high of $126,000 to its current level of around $89,000, crypto-related stocks also experienced significant corrections.

The industry generally believes that BitGo's market performance will serve as an important indicator for the wave of crypto IPOs in 2026. According to reports, crypto exchange Kraken and ETF provider Grayscale are both preparing for their initial public offerings and are expected to enter the capital markets this year.

BitGo CEO Mike Belshe remains optimistic: "The improved regulatory environment over the past year has enabled all financial institutions to participate in the digital asset market, which has actually doubled our total potential customer base."

It is worth noting that BitGo has chosen a more "crypto-native" path to going public—By partnering with Ondo Finance, tokenize company shares to enable trading and circulation on blockchain networks such as Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain.This is one of the first cases among newly listed U.S. companies to achieve global, real-time stock trading, providing overseas investors with an almost instantaneous and convenient channel to participate.

Although the first-day closing price rose sharply, as high as that of Circle, BitGo, as an infrastructure provider offering "utilities" level services in the crypto ecosystem, still enjoys widespread recognition from institutional investors for its long-term value. As traditional financial institutions accelerate their embrace of digital assets, whether BitGo can live up to the high expectations of analysts will continue to be closely followed and reported by Odaily Planet Daily.