From PayPal, Palantir to the current Bullish: Can Silicon Valley's legendary investor Peter Thiel once again work his Midas touch?

Cryptos Exchange $Bullish (BLSH.US)$ has officially submitted an IPO application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and is set to list on the U.S. stock market with the ticker symbol 'BLSH' this Wednesday.

The most eye-catching aspect is that the company's investor is Silicon Valley legend Peter Thiel—co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, and an early investor in Facebook.

This has sparked market speculation about whether Bullish could become the next Palantir.

At this point, many mooers may be curious about who Peter Thiel is and why he is turning his attention to Bullish. The following will address these questions one by one.

Who is Peter Thiel?

Peter Thiel is a name that many may recognize. He is known as the 'PayPal Mafia Godfather' and a 'Godfather'-level figure in Silicon Valley's venture capital circles. He was also one of the earliest external investors in Facebook, and he is a legendary entrepreneur.

Peter Thiel is one of the most legendary and controversial figures in Silicon Valley. He founded PayPal, Palantir, and Founders Fund, and invested in companies such as SpaceX, Stripe, and Airbnb, profoundly shaping the American Technology world over the past 25 years.

According to Statistics, in addition to $Palantir (PLTR.US)$ and $PayPal (PYPL.US)$ , Peter Thiel and his fund Founders Fund have invested in Ethereum whale $Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR.US)$ 、 $Meta Platforms (META.US)$ and biotechnology company $AbCellera Biologics (ABCL.US)$ Airbnb, the global homestay giant $Airbnb (ABNB.US)$ Yelp, the largest review site in the U.S. $Yelp Inc (YELP.US)$ Uber, the U.S. online car-hailing giant $Lyft Inc (LYFT.US)$ Affirm, the U.S. buy-now-pay-later giant $Affirm Holdings (AFRM.US)$ Spotify, the music streaming giant $Spotify Technology (SPOT.US)$ Adobe, the design giant $Figma Inc (FIG.US)$ PayPal, the fintech giant $Nu Holdings (NU.US)$ Twilio, the cloud communications giant $Twilio (TWLO.US)$ "Technology-driven insurance companies" and emerging players $Oscar Health (OSCR.US)$ "Software giants" $Asana (ASAN.US)$ 。

From the AI wave, the most surprising performance has been that of Palantir, with its stock price increasing more than 28 times over the past three years.In fact, from PayPal to Palantir, Peter Thiel has almost never missed any opportunity to change the world. He possesses an almost uncanny ability to turn investments into industry giants that transform the world.

Why is the focus on Bullish?

This legendary Silicon Valley investor has now turned his attention to the Cryptos sector.

Previously, he invested in Ethereum mining stocks, such as Bitmine Immersion Technologies, and more recently, he has backed the Cryptos Exchange Bullish, which is set to go public. So, what is the background of Bullish, and why did Peter Thiel place his bet on it?

Specifically, Bullish was founded in 2021 and is a rising star in the Cryptos Exchange Industry, focusing on a global digital assets platform for institutional clients. Its core business encompasses two sectors:institutional-grade digital assets trading infrastructure and a digital assets information service system.

One, institutional-grade digital assets trading infrastructure: The multi-regulated Bullish Exchange provides spot and derivatives trading services for cryptos, supporting major assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

According to the prospectus, in the first quarter of 2025, the daily trading volume on Bullish Exchange exceeded $25 billion, making it one of the top five exchanges for Bitcoin and Ethereum spot trading; since its launch, the total trading volume on Bullish Exchange has surpassed $1.25 trillion.

Source: Prospectus

II. Digital Assets Information Service System: Through the acquisition of CoinDesk and CCData, Bullish has built a full-service ecosystem covering market data, index compilation, and industry news. Notably, the well-known crypto media platform CoinDesk reached 55 million independent visits in 2024, with its data and index services covering 171,000 users; the addition of CCData significantly enhanced the professionalism of the data solutions.

Source: Prospectus

Overall，Bullish's business structure is a dual-driven model of exchange and media, which the company believes can generate a synergistic flywheel effect,promoting the cross-utilization of products and services.

For example, tradeable products supported by CoinDesk Indices will be listed on the Bullish Exchange and backed by a unified and efficient cost base across the enterprise. Additionally, the integration of CoinDesk Data with CoinDesk Indices enhances this flywheel effect, as CoinDesk Data provides comprehensive market insights and analysis that underpin the indices, while CoinDesk Indices leverages this data to develop index solutions, thereby strengthening each other's business.

Source: Prospectus

Furthermore, Bullish has been actively advancing its compliance layout globally in recent years. It has established subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands, the United States, Singapore, Gibraltar, Germany, and Hong Kong, including obtaining a virtual asset trading platform license from the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong earlier this year.

Notably, Bullish's total trading volume in 2024 reached $546.7 billion, a 173% increase from 2023. Specifically, the trading volumes of Bitcoin and Ethereum increased by 142% and 148%, respectively, while the trading volume of 'other assets' surged by 517%.This growth trend reflects Bullish's initial success in attracting institutional clients, enhancing market liquidity, and increasing platform activity, gradually establishing itself as a key player in the global crypto exchange industry.This growth trend reflects Bullish's initial success in attracting institutional clients, enhancing market liquidity, and increasing platform activity, gradually establishing itself as a key player in the global crypto exchange industry.

Additionally, it is worth noting that,Bullish, holding over 24,000 Bitcoins, is poised to become the fifth-largest Bitcoin-holding company globally upon listing.

However, there is a point in the prospectus that investors should be wary of: Bullish reported digital asset sales of $80.236 billion in the first quarter of 2025, with a net loss of $348 million. This was mainly due to a one-time impairment of $246 million caused by a decline in Bitcoin prices during the quarter.This also implies that the company is overly dependent on the volatility of Bitcoin prices.

Further reading:A Heavyweight Cryptos IPO! Bullish, Backed by Peter Thiel, Is Set to List—Can It Become the Next Circle?

From PayPal and Palantir to the present-day Bullish, Peter Thiel has always managed to position himself accurately for the future when others are hesitant.This time, he is targeting the 'compliance' wave in the Cryptos industry. Standing at a historic turning point, can Bullish replicate the success path of Palantir and become a new wealth-creating engine? The answer is about to be revealed.

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