Crypto Currents: Bullish about to come public as SoftBank readies PayPay IPO

As bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies see major legal, institutional, and technological developments, the financial landscape continues to adapt. Stay up on the crypto news that matters with “Crypto Currents” from The Fly, including an essential daily recap, every day at 2 PM ET on FlyCast radio.

CORPORATE CRYPTO ADOPTION SURGES: Institutional confidence in the digital asset space is growing, highlighted by two major announcements this week:

• Chainlink (LINK), a decentralized oracle network, partnered with Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange. This collaboration will bring foreign exchange and precious metals data on-chain, signaling a growing demand for reliable real-world data within the crypto ecosystem.
• CEA Industries (VAPE) became the largest corporate holder of BNB (BNB) by acquiring $160M worth of the cryptocurrency for its treasury. Additionally, Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR) continued its long-term bet on bitcoin, purchasing an additional 155 BTC for $18M.

SOFTBANK PREPARES FOR PAYPAY IPO: In a major move for the global financial landscape, SoftBank (SFTBY) is preparing for a potential initial public offering in the United States for its Japanese payments app operator, PayPay. Sources indicate the IPO could raise more than $2B and is being led by a consortium of major investment banks, including Goldman Sachs (GS), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Mizuho Financial Group (MFG), and Morgan Stanley (MS). This offering, which could happen as soon as the final quarter of this year, follows the successful public listing of SoftBank’s chip designer, Arm Holdings (ARM), and reflects renewed confidence in the U.S. IPO market.

BULLISH IPO BOOKS OVER-SUBSCRIBED: In a sign of strong investor appetite for crypto-native companies, crypto exchange Bullish (BLSH) is preparing for its initial public offering, which is set to price on Tuesday. The deal has seen significant momentum, with the price range recently increased to $32.00-$33.00 from an initial range of $28.00-$31.00. The number of shares offered was also raised to 30M from 20.3M shares. The offering, which has its books multiple times oversubscribed within the new range, is being led by a consortium of major investment banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Jefferies (JEF), and Citi (C).

CRYPTO MARKET CAP SURPASSES $4T: The cryptocurrency market is showing strong bullish signals, with the total market capitalization exceeding $4T this week. This milestone comes as bitcoin’s dominance has started to wane, a sign that capital is diversifying into altcoins. This rally also saw a “mystery institution” buy a substantial amount of ethereum (ETH), further fueling the market’s positive momentum.

ANALYST RESEARCH

• H.C. WAINWRIGHT ON CORE SCIENTIFIC: Following its Q2 earnings report, an analyst report from H.C. Wainwright & Co. gave Core Scientific (CORZ) a Neutral rating. The company reported Q2 sales of $78.6M, a 1% decrease from the previous quarter. This decline was primarily attributed to a drop in bitcoin mining revenue, which was not fully offset by contributions from high-performance computing, or HPC, hosting. The report adjusted its FY25 sales estimate for Core Scientific to $428.2M but maintained a bullish outlook for 2026, forecasting $621.8M in sales due to anticipated HPC hosting contracts.
• BTIG ON BITCOIN MINING STOCKS: A report from BTIG notes that in July, bitcoin mining stocks and companies providing power for high-performance computing significantly outperformed bitcoin itself. These stocks saw gains of 10%-60%, while bitcoin’s price increased by about 9%. The strong performance was driven by two main factors: a growing trend of companies adopting bitcoin Treasury strategies and increasing demand from HPC and AI data center customers for power infrastructure.

PRICE ACTION: As of time of writing, bitcoin (BTC) was trading at approximately $120,053.34, while ethereum (ETH) was around $4,286.55.