Crypto ‘Secondaries’ Prices Jump as Expectations of IPOs Climb

Crypto funds and private investors have been snapping up shares of private digital-asset companies in anticipation that some of them could be going public in the coming months.

Equity in companies such as stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Financial, crypto exchange Kraken and blockchain forensics provider Chainalysis has been trading more actively recently, and many of the deep discounts of a year ago have declined, according to multiple trading venues. Crypto buy-side demand in the first half of 2024 is 28% higher than it was in the second half of last year, and 126% higher than in the first half of 2023, according to Forge Global, a secondary market platform.