Cryptocurrency "Gatekeeper" Storms NYSE as BitGo Sets Stage for 2026 Institutional IPO
Original Title: "Crypto 'Guardian' Rings the Bell at NYSE"
Original Author: Bootly, via Bitpush News
Cryptocurrency custody institution BitGo ($BTGO) officially rang the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange on January 22, Eastern Time.
This company, seen as the "lifeline of crypto asset infrastructure," completed its IPO at $18 per share, surging to $22.43 at the opening, marking a day one spike of about 25%, kicking off the wave of crypto company listings in 2026.
Based on the IPO price, BitGo is valued at around $20 billion. While this number is far below the stablecoin issuer Circle ($CRCL), which went public last year with a valuation of nearly $70 billion, as one of the first large crypto companies to go public this year, BitGo's performance is also considered robust.
A Decade in the Making: From Multi-Sig Pioneer to Institutional Guardian
Following several successful crypto company listings in 2025, BitGo is the latest native crypto company to attempt to enter the public market.
Their story dates back to 2013 when the crypto world was still in the "wild west" era, plagued by frequent hacks and key management nightmares. Founders Mike Belshe and Ben Davenport keenly realized that if institutional investors were to enter the scene, what they needed was not flashy trading software but rather a sense of "security."
BitGo Co-founder Mike Belshe
Standing on the NYSE's bell-ringing platform, Mike Belshe might recall that afternoon over a decade ago.
As Google Chrome's founding team's tenth employee and the co-creator of the modern web acceleration protocol HTTP/2, Mike was initially not interested in cryptocurrency, even suspecting it to be a scam. However, he attempted to debunk it in the most "programmer" way possible: "I tried to hack Bitcoin, and I failed."
This failure instantly transformed him from a skeptic to a hardcore believer. To find a more secure place for the old laptop under the couch loaded with Bitcoin, he decided to personally dig a "trench" for this untamed market.
In its early days, BitGo's office looked more like a lab. While Coinbase was busy acquiring customers and boosting retail trading volume, Mike's team was researching the commercial potential of Multi-Sig. Despite his close relationship with Netscape co-founder and a16z leader Ben Horowitz, he did not choose the "VC-backed" fast lane but instead opted for the slowest and most stable path.
In 2013, BitGo pioneered Multi-Signature (Multi-Sig) wallet technology, which later became an industry standard configuration. However, BitGo did not stop at selling software; it made a key strategic decision: to transform into a "licensed financial institution."
By obtaining trust charters in South Dakota and New York, BitGo successfully transformed into a "Qualified Custodian." This identity played a pivotal role in the 2024 and 2025 cryptocurrency ETF frenzy. When asset management giants like BlackRock launched Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs, it was service providers like BitGo that were responsible for safeguarding asset security and handling settlement processes.
Unlike exchanges such as Coinbase, BitGo built a resilient "Institutional Flywheel": first, lock assets in the utmost compliant custody (AUM), then, around these stable assets, derive services such as staking, clearing, and OTC brokerage.
This "infrastructure-first" logic allowed BitGo to demonstrate astonishing resilience in market fluctuations. After all, regardless of market ups and downs, as long as the assets are in the "vault," BitGo's business continues.
With a 10x revenue multiple, what is the underlying strength?
Looking at BitGo's disclosed prospectus, its financial data seems quite "impressive."
Due to the requirements of US GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles), BitGo must include all principal amounts of transactions in revenue. This led to the "digital asset sales" gross revenue reaching an astonishing $10 billion in the first three quarters of 2025. However, to sophisticated investors, these numbers are merely "pass-through money" and do not reflect real profit-making ability.
What truly supports its $20 billion valuation is the "Subscription and Services" business segment.
According to Blockworks Research chart data, BitGo's core economic revenue (excluding pass-through fees and costs) is expected to be around $195.9 million in FY 2025. Subscription services contributed the majority of high-margin recurring revenue, with $80 million contributing nearly 48% of total net revenue. This revenue primarily comes from recurring fees BitGo charges to over 4,900 institutional clients.
Furthermore, the staking business has become a surprising growth area. Staking revenue amounted to $39 million, ranking second. This reflects BitGo's transformation from a mere "vault" to significantly increasing capital efficiency by providing yield on custodied assets.
Looking at the transaction and stablecoin business, despite transaction volume accounting for the highest percentage of total revenue, it only represents $35 million in adjusted net revenue.
The newly launched "Stablecoin-as-a-Service" contributed $14 million, showing some market penetration despite being in its early stages.
To truly assess BitGo's valuation, one must adjust its financial metrics on paper. If valued solely based on its approximately $1.6 billion GAAP revenue, its valuation appears very low (market-to-sales ratio of about 0.1x). However, when excluding non-core items such as pass-through transaction costs, staking revenue share, and stablecoin issuer fees, its core business moat is quite deep:
· FY 2025 Core Economic Revenue (estimated): around $195.9 million
· Implied valuation multiple: Enterprise Value / Core Revenue ≈ 10x
This 10x valuation multiple places it above wallet-focused peers with a retail business, with the premium reflecting its regulatory moat as a "qualified custodian." Simply put, at a $1.96 billion valuation level, the market is willing to pay a premium for the subscription business, while the low-margin transaction and staking businesses are just icing on the cake.
VanEck's Director of Research, Matthew Sigel, believes that compared to most cryptocurrencies with a market capitalization exceeding $20 billion but never generating net profit, BitGo's equity is a more tangible asset. The essence of this business is selling shovels, where regardless of market conditions, as long as institutions are trading, ETFs are operational, and assets need safekeeping, it can continue to earn fees. This model may not shine as brightly as some meme coins in a bull market, but in a volatile or bear market, it's a "stable source of income."
More symbolically, its listing method itself stands out. Unlike other crypto companies' IPOs, BitGo took a more "crypto-native" approach: through a partnership with Ondo Finance, it synchronized its shares on-chain on the first day of trading.
The tokenized BTGO shares will circulate on Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain, allowing global investors to almost instantly access this newly listed custody institution. The tokenized BTGO stocks may potentially serve as collateral in direct participation in DeFi lending protocols, bridging the TradFi (traditional finance) and DeFi realms.
Summary
Image Source: PitchBook
Looking back at the just-passed year 2025, cryptocurrency venture capital (VC) transactions surged to $19.7 billion. As noted by PwC IPO expert Mike Bellin, 2025 marked the completion of the "professionalization transformation" of cryptocurrency, with 2026 set to be a year of explosive liquidity.
Following pioneers like Bullish, Circle, and Gemini who successfully went public in 2025, crypto company listings have exhibited a dual characteristic of "infrastructuralization" and "giantization." Currently, Kraken has confidentially filed with the SEC, poised to make a play for the largest annual crypto exchange platform IPO; Consensys is closely collaborating with JPMorgan Chase, seeking to establish dominance in the Ethereum ecosystem; and Ledger, amidst the surge in self-custody demand, has anchored itself to the New York Stock Exchange.
Naturally, the market has never been immune to macro fluctuations, and the memory of companies listing and breaking below their IPO price in 2025 remains fresh. However, this precisely indicates the industry's maturation, where capital no longer blindly buys into every good story but instead starts scrutinizing financial health, regulatory frameworks, and sustainable business models.
Welcome to join the official BlockBeats community:
Telegram Subscription Group: https://t.me/theblockbeats
Telegram Discussion Group: https://t.me/BlockBeats_App
Official Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia
