Bullish to Buy Equiniti for $4.2 Billion

Bullish agreed to buy Equiniti for $4.2 billion to link a regulated transfer agent’s recordkeeping and payment services with Bullish’s tokenized-equity platform. The deal includes $1.85 billion of assumed Equiniti debt and $2.35 billion in newly issued Bullish stock priced at $38.48 per share. Closing is targeted for January 2027 and requires regulatory approvals in the U.S. and the U.K.

Siris, which acquired Equiniti in 2021, will receive two seats on the combined company’s board. Dan Kramer, Equiniti’s chief executive, will continue to run day-to-day operations after the transaction closes.

Equiniti maintains the legal shareholder records for nearly 3,000 public companies and processes about $500 billion in payments each year. The firm is registered as a transfer agent with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and is regulated by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority.

Transfer agents hold the official register of who owns shares and handle dividends, voting and corporate-action paperwork. When a regulated transfer agent is not integrated with tokenized trading systems, blockchain ledgers and the official shareholder register can diverge after trades. That reconciliation gap has constrained tokenized-equity pilots. Tokenized fixed-income products have advanced faster because bond recordkeeping is simpler than equity recordkeeping.

The combined company expects roughly $1.3 billion in adjusted revenue for 2026 and more than $500 million in adjusted EBITDA excluding capital expenditures. Management projects annual revenue growth of 6 to 8 percent through 2029, with tokenization and blockchain services growing at about 20 percent annually. Bullish reported $288.5 million in revenue and $94.3 million in adjusted EBITDA for 2025; the Equiniti acquisition would more than triple Bullish’s revenue base in a single transaction.

The transaction departs from recent crypto acquisitions that focused on trading platforms and exchanges and instead targets regulated back-office and custody systems. Regulatory approvals will determine the timing and any structural changes to the deal. Equiniti’s existing registrations in the U.S. and U.K. give the combined business credentials in both jurisdictions prior to approvals for transfer of control and cross-border operations.

Investors and market participants will monitor how Bullish integrates Equiniti’s legacy systems with blockchain-based ledgers and whether the combined group can reconcile on-chain records with the official shareholder registry. Tom Farley, Bullish’s chief executive, described tokenization as “a once-in-a-generation shift in how capital markets operate, the defining infrastructure trend of the next 25 years.” Bullish has argued that owning a scaled, regulated transfer-agent platform with deep public-company relationships is necessary to support equities on-chain at scale.