Bullish to acquire Equiniti in $4.2 billion deal

Bullish has agreed to acquire Equiniti, a regulated transfer agent serving almost 3,000 public company clients, in a transaction valued at $4.2 billion, the company said Tuesday.

Under the terms of the agreement, Equiniti’s existing debt of $1.85 billion will be absorbed by Bullish, with the remainder of the $4.2 billion consideration — approximately $2.35 billion — paid in Bullish shares valued at $38.48 each, based on a 30-day volume-weighted average price through May 4, subject to customary purchase price adjustments. Bullish stock slid roughly 6% in premarket trading Tuesday.

Tom Farley, who previously served as president of the NYSE and now leads Bullish, framed the acquisition as a response to a structural gap that has slowed institutional adoption of blockchain-based capital markets infrastructure. “Tokenization is a once-in-a-generation shift in how capital markets operate,” Farley said in a statement. “Broad adoption at institutional scale requires three things: end-to-end tokenization services, a single, unified ledger, and a broad base of blue-chip issuer relationships, at scale.”

Transfer agents maintain official records of registered shareholders for listed companies. The transfer agent handles roughly $500 billion in payments each year and counts more than 20 million verified shareholders on its books, holds SEC-registered transfer agent status in the U.S. and is regulated by the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority. The combined platform is intended to interoperate with existing infrastructure, including central securities depositories such as DTCC, Euroclear, and Clearstream.

Siris Capital, a private equity firm that took Equiniti private in 2021, is the seller in the transaction. Siris will receive two seats on Bullish’s board as part of the transaction. Equiniti CEO Dan Kramer and the company’s leadership team will retain responsibility for day-to-day operations, regulatory obligations, and client relationships. Equiniti will operate alongside Bullish Exchange and CoinDesk under the Bullish umbrella.

On a pro forma combined basis, the two companies are expected to generate about $1.3 billion in adjusted total revenue and more than $500 million in adjusted EBITDA less capital expenditure for 2026, Bullish said. Between 2027 and 2029, Bullish anticipates its top line will expand at an annual rate of 6% to 8%, with tokenization and blockchain services alone forecast to grow 20% per year; the company also projects EBITDA less capital expenditure to rise by more than $100 million annually over that period.