A toxic trend that suggests the IPO window is slamming shut for most crypto companies ignored Circle

The 2025 crypto IPO class revealed a stark divergence in investor appetite: while Circle, a regulated stablecoin issuer, maintained its valuation due to its infrastructure-based revenue model tied to Treasury yields, most other debuts like eToro, Bullish, and Gemini saw massive value drops (48% to 70%). This performance suggests that the IPO window is effectively slamming shut for crypto companies whose earnings are directly tied to speculative trading volumes and retail enthusiasm. Public markets will now only underwrite crypto businesses that possess durable, counter-cyclical, or quasi-infrastructure models with clear regulatory postures and defensible cash flows, regardless of Bitcoin's price movement. The lesson for 2026 is that crypto equities are bifurcating; infrastructure plays like Circle are favored, while platforms dependent on cyclical fee streams face a much narrower path to public market success.

(Source：CryptoSlate)