Analysis
Two of crypto's more established infrastructure names are quietly working through the confidential-filing stage of an IPO, and both are running into the same problem: a market pricing crypto-adjacent businesses at a steep discount to their pandemic-era peaks. FalconX, an institutional crypto prime broker serving hedge funds, asset managers and market makers, confidentially filed a draft S-1 registration statement with the SEC and hired Cantor and other bankers to advise on a potential offering, with a listing not expected until late 2026. Blockchain.com has separately filed confidentially for its own U.S. IPO, adding a second major crypto-infrastructure name to the pipeline.
The valuation math is the story here. FalconX raised $150 million in a June 2022 Series D that valued the firm at $8 billion, near the peak of the last crypto bull cycle. Using trading multiples comparable to publicly traded Coinbase, analysts now expect FalconX's eventual IPO valuation to land somewhere sub-$1 billion -- a roughly 90% reset from its 2022 mark. That's a far more dramatic markdown than the resets seen in AI or consumer tech IPOs this cycle, reflecting how much further crypto valuations fell and how much more cautiously public investors are treating the category even as broader risk appetite for tech IPOs has recovered.
“FalconX raised $150 million in a June 2022 Series D that valued the firm at $8 billion, near the peak of the last crypto bull cycle.”
Weaker trading volumes and generally cautious crypto-market conditions through 2026 have slowed the pace of new listings in the category more broadly, shaping both the timing and likely pricing of FalconX's and Blockchain.com's eventual offerings. That contrasts with the tech IPO market overall, where Nasdaq reported a record $129.3 billion raised in new listings during the first half of 2026 -- crypto infrastructure is having a very different public-markets moment than AI or consumer tech right now.
What to watch: whether either company converts its confidential filing into a public S-1 before year-end, whether crypto trading volumes recover enough to support a valuation closer to FalconX's 2022 mark, and whether a successful debut from either name reopens the IPO window for other crypto-infrastructure players that have stayed private through the downturn.
