Bullish (BLSH) has agreed to acquire transfer agent and shareholder services firm Equiniti in a $4.25 billion deal that would fold a core piece of traditional market infrastructure into its digital asset platform, expanding its push into tokenized securities.

The transaction gives Bullish, CoinDesk's parent company, a regulated transfer agent, a required function for public companies, alongside its existing tokenization, trading and market infrastructure capabilities.

Equiniti maintains records for more than 2,500 companies and 20 million shareholders and processes roughly $500 billion in annual payments, effectively acting as a system of record for equity ownership.

Combined, the companies aim to offer an end-to-end platform covering token design, issuance, compliance, registry and secondary trading, addressing what Bullish sees as a key gap in blockchain-based capital markets: the lack of a transfer agent built for tokenized assets.

“Tokenization is a once-in-a-generation shift in how capital markets operate, the defining infrastructure trend of the next 25 years," said Tom Farley, CEO of Bullish, in the release.

"Broad adoption at institutional scale requires three things: end-to-end tokenization services, a single, unified ledger, and issuer relationships at scale. This combination delivers all three, and I believe it uniquely positions us to lead the transition to tokenized securities," he added.

The deal comes as traditional financial services providers continue to push into tokenizing securities. Most recently, BlackRock-backed Securitize and Computershare said they plan to bring parts of the $70 trillion U.S. stock market onchain via tokenized equities, a move that pushes traditional infrastructure closer to blockchain rails.

M&A wave

Bullish's acquisition of Equiniti also lands amid a broader wave of consolidation sweeping crypto, as firms race to build full-stack financial infrastructure.

After a lull in 2022–2023, mergers and acquisitions rebounded sharply in 2025, with more than 260 deals totaling about $8.6 billion, according to Pitchbook data. The amount is roughly four times the prior year, driven by clearer regulation and renewed institutional interest.

Companies are increasingly using acquisitions to fill capability gaps in areas like custody, payments, tokenization and derivatives, while larger players absorb smaller firms to scale distribution and compliance. High-profile transactions—from Kraken’s move into regulated derivatives to MoonPay’s push into payments infrastructure, underscore a shift away from speculative bets toward vertical integration and durable revenue models, a trend expected to continue into 2026.

The deal positions Bullish, which went public last year, to connect traditional equity infrastructure with blockchain rails, enabling features like real-time cap table visibility, automated corporate actions and faster settlement, while supporting liquidity in tokenized shares, particularly for non-U.S. investors.

At $4.25 billion, the Equiniti acquisition would rank among the largest crypto-linked deals ever, surpassing Coinbase’s $2.9 billion purchase of Deribit and Kraken’s $1.5 billion NinjaTrader deal. The size underscores how crypto M&A has moved beyond exchanges buying exchanges and into a land grab for regulated financial infrastructure.

Bullish’s last acquisition prior to the Equiniti deal was its 2023 purchase of CoinDesk from Digital Currency Group, marking its entry into media, data and index services alongside its trading business. In 2024, it also acquired data provider CCData, a U.K.-regulated benchmark administrator and one of the leading providers of digital asset data and index solutions.

The Equiniti acquisition is expected to close in early 2027, pending regulatory approvals.

Goldman Sachs served as the financial advisor to Bullish, while Evercore and FT Partners advised Siris Capital, a founding investor in Equiniti since 2021.

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