Bullish shares fall after Q1 miss, $605M net loss

Bullish reported a $604.9 million net loss for the quarter ended March 31 and adjusted revenue of $92.8 million, missing Wall Street expectations. Shares dropped 5.6% in regular trading to close at $39.46 and rose roughly 1% in after-hours trading.

Adjusted revenue rose from $62.4 million a year earlier but missed the $95.4 million estimate. Adjusted earnings per share were $0.13, below the $0.17 consensus. The quarterly loss widened from $348.6 million in the prior-year period. Bitcoin fell about 24% over the quarter, a factor that contributed to weaker trading volumes.

Since going public in August, Bullish’s stock has declined about 43%; it is up about 4.2% year to date.

Bullish highlighted its proposed $4.2 billion acquisition of Equiniti, saying the deal would provide a regulated transfer agent and tokenization infrastructure and enable end-to-end token services. CEO Tom Farley described the transaction as providing “end-to-end tokenization services, a unified transfer agent ledger, and broad blue-chip issuer relationships.” The company noted it ranks second among exchanges for Bitcoin options.

Rival exchanges posted mixed first-quarter results. One reported $50.3 million in revenue and a $109 million net loss. Another reported $1.41 billion in revenue and a $394.1 million net loss, its second consecutive quarterly loss.

Management did not provide forward guidance tied to the Equiniti integration in the quarterly summary but highlighted the potential for new product offerings once the acquisition closes.