CoinDesk parent Bullish (BLSH) has agreed to acquire transfer agent and shareholder services firm Equiniti for $4.2 billion in a deal that will expand its push into tokenized securities by incorporating core pieces of traditional market infrastructure into its digital asset platform.
The deal, which includes $1.85 billion in Equiiti debt and approximately $2.35 billion in Bullish stock, was priced at $38.48 per share based on Bullish’s 30-day volume-weighted average price as of May 4, according to a press release.
Bullish shares were down about 1.5% in pre-market trading following the news.
The transaction provides Bullish, a regulated transfer agent, with the functionality required for a public company, alongside its existing tokenization, trading and market infrastructure capabilities.
Equiniti maintains the records of more than 2,500 companies and 20 million shareholders, processing approximately $500 billion in payments annually, effectively serving as a system of record for equity ownership. The company serves nearly 3,000 issuer clients and 15,000 enterprise clients and has more than 5,000 employees across global operations.
The two companies’ combined goal is to provide an end-to-end platform covering token design, issuance, compliance, registration and secondary trading, addressing what Bullish sees as a key gap in blockchain-based capital markets: the lack of transfer agents built for tokenized assets.
“Tokenization is a once-in-a-generation shift in the way capital markets operate and is the defining trend in infrastructure over the next 25 years,” Bullish CEO Tom Farley said in a press release.
“Broad adoption at institutional scale requires three things: end-to-end tokenized services, a single, unified ledger, and issuer relationships at scale. This combination satisfies all three and I believe it puts us in a unique position to lead the transition to tokenized securities,” he added.
Equiniti CEO Dan Kramer said the transaction expands the company’s modernization roadmap while preserving its operating model.
Kramer and the existing Equiniti leadership team will retain responsibility for day-to-day operations, regulatory obligations and client relations under the Bullish umbrella.
The combined company is expected to generate approximately $1.3 billion in adjusted revenue by 2026 and over $500 million in adjusted EBITDA after capital expenditures, with annual revenue growth of 6%-8% by 2029 and tokenization and blockchain services growing 20%.
According to its fourth-quarter financial report, Bullish reported full-year 2025 adjusted EBITDA of $94.3 million and adjusted revenue of $288.5 million.
The deal comes as traditional financial services providers continue their push to tokenize securities. Recently, BlackRock-backed Securitize and Computershare said they plan to put part of the $70 trillion U.S. stock market on-chain by tokenizing stocks, a move that will push traditional infrastructure closer to the blockchain track.
M&A wave
Bullish’s acquisition of Equiniti also comes amid a broader wave of consolidation sweeping cryptocurrencies, with companies racing to build full-stack financial infrastructure.
Pitchbook data shows that after a lull in 2022 to 2023, M&A activity rebounded sharply in 2025, with more than 260 transactions worth approximately $8.6 billion. That amount was roughly four times the previous year, driven by clearer regulation and new institutional interest.
Companies are increasingly turning to acquisitions to fill capability gaps in areas such as custody, payments, tokenization and derivatives, while larger players absorb smaller players to expand distribution and compliance. High-profile deals, from Kraken’s foray into regulated derivatives to MoonPay’s foray into payments infrastructure, highlight a shift away from speculative bets toward vertical integration and durable revenue models, a trend expected to continue into 2026.
The deal enables Bullish, which went public last year, to connect traditional equity infrastructure with blockchain rails, enabling features such as real-time cap table visibility, automated corporate actions and faster settlements, while supporting liquidity in tokenized shares, particularly for non-U.S. investors.
At $4.2 billion, Equiniti’s acquisition would rank among the largest cryptocurrency-related deals ever, surpassing Coinbase’s $2.9 billion acquisition of Deribit and Kraken’s $1.5 billion NinjaTrader deal. The scale highlights how cryptocurrency M&A has moved beyond exchanges buying exchanges into a scramble for land for regulated financial infrastructure.
Bullish’s last acquisition before the Equinit deal was CoinDesk from Digital Money Group in 2023, marking its move beyond the trading business into media, data and index services. In 2024, it also acquired data provider CCData, a UK-regulated benchmark manager and one of the leading providers of digital asset data and index solutions.
Siris, which acquired Equiniti in 2021, will hold two board seats in the combined company and holds a call option to repurchase “non-core” Equiniti business lines. Financial data for these lines are not included in the disclosed transaction data.
The acquisition of Equinit is expected to close in early 2027, pending regulatory approvals.
Goldman Sachs acted as financial advisor to Bullish, while Evercore and FT Partners advised Siris Capital, which has been a founding investor in Equiniti since 2021.
Read more: Kraken parent company Payward to acquire derivatives exchange Bitnomial for $550 million in cash and stock
Update (May 5, 10:44 UTC): Add more transaction details throughout the story.
