Written by: jk
Yesterday, the New York Stock Exchange trading floor witnessed the first cryptocurrency IPO of the new year: the listing bell rang for digital asset custody service provider BitGo Holdings (NYSE: BTGO). Founded in 2013 and managing over $100 billion in assets, this industry leader officially entered the capital market with an offering price of $18, raising $212.8 million and achieving a valuation exceeding $2 billion.
What company is BitGo? Why haven't retail investors heard of it?
Founded in 2013 and headquartered in South Dakota, USA, BitGo 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 worldwide, managing over $104 billion in assets across more than 50 countries. The company handles approximately 20% of the global Bitcoin transaction volume, and its clients include cryptocurrency exchanges, hedge funds, asset management companies, as well as traditional businesses such as Nike and NYU Langone Medical Center.
BitGo's core businesses include: digital asset custody (cold storage and hot wallets), the BitGo Prime trading and lending platform, the Go Network real-time settlement network, staking services, and exclusive custody of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC). Notably, the company maintains a perfect record of 12 years with zero 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 custody company to receive a federal bank charter. In addition, it also holds operating licenses in multiple jurisdictions, including the EU MiCA license and the UAE VARA license.
First day performance: Opened sharply higher but then fell back.
BitGo shares opened at $22.43, up 24.6% from the offering price of $18. The stock touched a high of $24.50 during the session, with the gains expanding to 36%. However, it gave back most of its gains near the close, eventually closing at $18.49, a slight increase of only 2.7% from the offering price.
The IPO was priced at $18 per share, higher than the market's previous expectation of $15-$17. Approximately 11.82 million Class A ordinary shares were issued, raising approximately $212.8 million. Based on the IPO price, the company's valuation is approximately $2.08 billion, an increase from its $1.75 billion valuation during its Series C funding round in August 2023.
Goldman Sachs and Citigroup served as joint lead underwriters for the IPO. The IPO was reportedly oversubscribed by approximately 13 times.
Revenue is growing rapidly, but profit margins are under pressure.
According to its prospectus, BitGo achieved revenue of $3.08 billion and net profit of $156.6 million in 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 approximately 274%, but net profit fell to $12.6 million, a year-on-year decline of 59%, mainly due to the company's significant investment in infrastructure construction and team expansion.
It's important to note that BitGo's revenue structure is somewhat unique. According to accounting standards, the company must include the full amount of customer transactions in revenue, while simultaneously including asset acquisition costs in its expenses. Therefore, although its reported revenue may be in the billions of dollars, its actual net income after deducting costs is much smaller. For example, in the first half of 2025, net revenue from digital asset sales was only $34.7 million, net revenue from staking was $40.5 million, and net revenue from stablecoin-as-a-service was $2.7 million.
The company's operating expenses reached $3.09 billion in 2024, of which $2.53 billion was the cost of digital asset sales. Subscription and service revenue remained relatively stable, reaching $120.7 million in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 56%.
Analysts strongly support the price, predicting a target price of $26.5.
Despite a lackluster first day of trading, many analysts remain optimistic about BitGo's long-term investment value. Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at investment management firm VanEck, gave a target price of $26.50, representing a 47% upside from the IPO price and a market capitalization of approximately $3 billion.
Sigel points out that BitGo is the first publicly traded company to offer investors pure custody exposure, with its custody and staking services contributing over 80% of its revenue. Compared to competitors heavily reliant on trading volume (such as Coinbase or Galaxy Digital), BitGo boasts stronger revenue stability and higher earnings quality. He projects that BitGo will 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 terms of regulatory compliance," Sigel said. "Among digital asset projects with a market capitalization exceeding $2 billion, the vast majority have never generated a single penny of net profit for their holders. In comparison, BitGo's equity is clearly a superior investment target."
He added that if the price of Bitcoin rises by 33%, the 2,369 Bitcoins held by BitGo would add $72 million to the company's market capitalization, further supporting its fair value of $3 billion.
The crypto IPO market is signaling its reopening, with multiple companies queuing up for listing.
BitGo's IPO is seen as a landmark event marking the restart of the cryptocurrency IPO market after a slump in the fourth quarter of 2025. In the first half of 2025, several crypto companies, including stablecoin issuer Circle (valued at approximately $7 billion), exchange Gemini, and Bullish, successfully went public. However, as Bitcoin has fallen 29% from its all-time high of $126,000 to its current price of approximately $89,000, crypto-related stocks have also experienced a significant correction.
Industry insiders generally believe that BitGo's market performance will be a significant indicator of the 2026 crypto IPO boom. It is understood that crypto exchage Kraken and ETF provider Grayscale are both preparing for IPOs and are expected to enter the capital markets this year.
BitGo CEO Mike Belshe remains optimistic about the future: "The improved regulatory environment over the past year has enabled all financial institutions to participate in the digital asset market, which has actually doubled our total number of potential customers."
Unique Innovation: Stocks are synchronized on the blockchain
It's worth noting that BitGo chose a more "crypto-native" listing path—by partnering with Ondo Finance to tokenize its shares, enabling them to be traded on blockchain networks such as Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain. This is one of the first cases of a newly listed US company achieving globalized, real-time stock trading, providing overseas investors with a near-instantaneous and convenient channel to participate.
Despite a first-day closing gain similar to Circle's, BitGo, as an infrastructure provider offering "utility" level services within the crypto ecosystem, still enjoys widespread recognition from institutional investors for its long-term value. As traditional financial institutions accelerate their embrace of digital assets, whether BitGo can live up to analysts' high expectations remains to be seen, and Odaily will continue to monitor and report on this Odaily.
