Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author | jk

Yesterday, the New York Stock Exchange trading floor welcomed the first cryptocurrency industry IPO of the new year: the listing bell for digital asset custodian BitGo Holdings (NYSE: BTGO) rang. Founded in 2013 and managing over $100 billion in assets, this industry leader officially entered the capital market with an issuance price of $18, raising $212.8 million and achieving a valuation exceeding $2 billion.

What kind of company is BitGo? Why haven't retail investors heard much about it?

BitGo was established in 2013 and is headquartered in South Dakota, USA. It is the world's largest independent digital asset custodian. The company was co-founded by internet technology pioneers Mike Belshe and Ben Davenport. Belshe was one of the first engineers on the Google Chrome browser team and a principal author of the HTTP/2.0 protocol.

Currently, BitGo serves over 4,900 institutional clients globally, managing assets exceeding $104 billion, with clients in more than 50 countries. The company handles about 20% of the total Bitcoin transaction volume worldwide, with clients including cryptocurrency exchanges, hedge funds, asset management firms, and traditional enterprises such as Nike and NYU Langone Medical Center.

BitGo's core services include: digital asset custody (cold storage and hot wallets), BitGo Prime trading and lending platform, Go Network real-time settlement network, staking services, and exclusive custody of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC). Notably, the company has maintained a perfect record of 12 years without security incidents.

In terms of regulatory compliance, BitGo received approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in December 2025, becoming the first crypto custodian to obtain a federal banking charter. Additionally, it holds operational licenses in multiple jurisdictions, including the EU MiCA license and UAE VARA license.

First Day Performance: Surge at Opening, Then Retreat

BitGo's stock opened at $22.43, a 24.6% increase from the issuance price of $18, reaching a high of $24.50 during the day, with an increase of 36%, but significantly retraced gains near the close, ultimately finishing at $18.49, a slight increase of 2.7% from the issuance price.

The IPO issuance price was set at $18 per share, higher than the previously expected market range of $15-17, with approximately 11.82 million Class A common shares issued, raising about $212.8 million. Based on the issuance price, the company's valuation is approximately $2.08 billion, an increase from the $1.75 billion valuation during the C round financing in August 2023.

Goldman Sachs and Citigroup served as co-lead underwriters for this IPO. It is reported that the IPO was oversubscribed by about 13 times.

Rapid Revenue Growth, but Profit Margins Under Pressure

According to the prospectus, BitGo achieved revenue of $3.08 billion and a net profit of $156.6 million in the fiscal year 2024, successfully reversing a loss of $2.1 million in fiscal year 2023. In the first half of 2025, the company's revenue surged to $4.19 billion, a year-on-year increase of about 274%, but net profit fell to $12.6 million, a 59% decline year-on-year, primarily due to significant investments in infrastructure and team expansion.

It is important to note that BitGo's revenue composition is quite unique. According to accounting standards, the company must record the full amount of client transactions as revenue while also accounting for the cost of asset acquisition. Therefore, although the reported revenue reaches billions of dollars, the actual net income after deducting costs is much smaller. For example, in the first half of 2025, the net income from digital asset sales was only $34.7 million, net income from staking was $40.5 million, and net income from stablecoin services was $2.7 million.

The company's operating expenses for 2024 reached $3.09 billion, with the cost of digital asset sales accounting for $2.53 billion. Subscription and service revenue remained relatively stable, reaching $120.7 million in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 56%.

Analysts Support: Target Price Set at $26.5

Despite a lackluster first-day performance, several analysts remain optimistic about BitGo's long-term investment value. Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at investment management firm VanEck, set a target price of $26.50, indicating a potential upside of 47% from the IPO price, corresponding to a market capitalization of about $3 billion.

Sigel pointed out that BitGo is the first publicly traded company to offer investors pure exposure to custody services, with its custody and staking services contributing over 80% of revenue, providing greater revenue stability and higher profit quality compared to competitors that heavily rely on transaction volume (such as Coinbase or Galaxy Digital). He expects BitGo to achieve over $400 million in revenue and $120 million in EBITDA by 2028.

"BitGo maintains an impeccable security record and has established key competitive barriers in regulatory compliance," Sigel stated. "Among digital asset projects with a market capitalization exceeding $2 billion, the vast majority have never generated a penny of net profit for holders, whereas BitGo's equity is clearly a higher quality investment."

He also added that if the price of Bitcoin rises by 33%, the 2,369 Bitcoins held by BitGo would add $72 million in value to the company's market capitalization, further supporting its fair valuation of $3 billion.

A Signal for the Reopening of the Crypto IPO Market, with Many Companies Queuing for Listing

BitGo's listing is seen as a landmark event signaling the restart of the cryptocurrency IPO market after the winter of Q4 2025. In the first half of 2025, several crypto companies, including stablecoin issuer Circle (with a listing valuation of about $7 billion), exchange Gemini, and Bullish, successfully went public. However, as Bitcoin fell 29% from its historical high of $126,000 to the current approximately $89,000, crypto-related stocks also experienced significant adjustments.

Industry insiders generally believe that BitGo's market performance will serve as an important barometer for the crypto IPO wave in 2026. It is understood that crypto exchange Kraken and ETF provider Grayscale are both preparing for listing plans, expected to enter the capital market within this year.

BitGo CEO Mike Belshe remains optimistic about the outlook: "The improved regulatory environment over the past year has allowed all financial institutions to participate in the digital asset market, effectively doubling our potential client base."

Innovative Feature: Stock Tokenization

Notably, BitGo has chosen a more "crypto-native" path for its listing—by partnering with Ondo Finance to tokenize the company's stock, allowing it to be traded on blockchain networks such as Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain. This is one of the first cases among newly listed companies in the U.S. to achieve global and real-time trading of stocks, providing nearly instant access for overseas investors.

Although the closing price on the first day surged as high as Circle, as an infrastructure provider offering "utilities" level services in the crypto ecosystem, BitGo's long-term value is still widely recognized by institutional investors. As traditional financial institutions accelerate their embrace of digital assets, whether BitGo can meet analysts' high expectations will continue to be monitored and reported by Odaily Planet Daily.

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