According to Fixygen, the Cayman Islands-registered cryptocurrency exchange Bullish has agreed to acquire the British securities registrar Equiniti from the American private equity firm Siris Capital for $4.2 billion, including $1.85 billion in debt, according to a statement from the buyer.
The transaction will be paid for entirely in stock. It is expected to close in January of next year following regulatory approvals.
Following the deal, Bullish and Equiniti plan to provide corporate issuers with securities tokenization services, including 24/7 trading on the Bullish exchange and other platforms, as well as payment and settlement solutions based on stablecoins.
Equiniti is one of the world’s largest registrars. The company serves approximately 3,000 public companies, including Berkshire Hathaway, Moody’s, and Rolls-Royce.
Bullish was founded in November 2021 and focuses on serving institutional clients, including market makers and asset management firms. Last August, it held a $1.1 billion IPO in New York with a total valuation of $5.41 billion. Bullish also owns the CoinDesk information platform, which, among other things, provides cryptocurrency price data, and has already tokenized its own shares.
Bullish shares are down 3% in pre-market trading on Tuesday.
