Laura Katherine Mann, a partner at global law firm White & Case, sees 2025 as the “test-case year” for crypto IPOs, but says 2026 is the real proof point: the year the market finds out whether digital asset IPOs are a “sustainable asset class” or just a cyclical trade that only works when prices crash.
2025 was a busy year for crypto companies going public. Stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) listed in June, followed by CoinDesk owner Bullish (BLSH) in August and crypto exchange Gemini (GEMI) in September.
Potential contenders for next year include South Korean crypto exchange Upbit, prime broker FalconX and blockchain analytics company Chainanalysis. Asset manager Grayscale has already applied to be listed in the US
Global crypto activity has meaningfully recovered from the boom and bust of the 2021 era. The open question heading into 2026, Mann says, is whether “crypto issuers can sustain that momentum” long enough to meet public market standards, not just crypto-native enthusiasm, she told CoinDesk in an interview.
Momentum is real, but volatility is a concern
Mann points to the backdrop public investors will carry into 2026: bitcoin more than doubled in 2024, then pushed to new records in 2025 before pulling back sharply. She says that kind of volatility is exactly what equity investors will weigh when evaluating IPO candidates next year because it not only affects sentiment, it affects revenue sustainability, client activity and valuation multiples across the sector.
She says traditional finance is signaling that crypto is big enough to index, pointing to S&P Dow Jones Indices’ announcement in October that it was launching a product that mixes digital assets with public crypto companies, another sign of institutionalization as mainstream market infrastructure begins to pack the sector.
But she says the story of institutionalization has a flip side: risk tolerance increases, but selectivity increases faster. Mann points to MSCI investigating the exclusion of companies — particularly digital asset treasury (DAT)-like listings — that have more than 50% of their assets in crypto, interprets it as a sign that index providers and allocators may increasingly draw a line between operating companies and balance sheet proxies for token exposure.
The result, she says, is a market where investors can accept risk, just not any kind of risk. We will see investors “accepting risk but being more discriminating about the risk they accept,” she added.
Regulatory and institutional tailwinds mean that the US is more investable
One of the biggest changes Mann sees heading into 2026 is the regulatory tone. She says the US has moved from an unfavorable environment to a “far more constructive environment for digital assets,” pointing to the GENIUS Act as an example of the direction of travel. That change, she claims, has “made the U.S. market more investable,” and she says she’s also seeing more signs of institutional adoption.
A rotation in what goes public: from DATs to financial infrastructure
If 2025 leaned heavily on DAT listings, Mann expects 2026 to mark a shift: more IPO candidates that look and feel like financial infrastructure, companies that can explain themselves through familiar public market frameworks like compliance position, recurring revenue and operational robustness.
She expects the 2026 IPO cohort to come from three buckets:
Regulated stock exchanges and brokerage firms
Mann says the most likely listings are exchanges and brokerages that already “live under bank-like compliance regimes” because they can present themselves as known quantities to public investors and regulators. She frames an IPO for these companies as “the next logical step.”
Crypto exchange Kraken has already submitted an application to be listed, with a potential listing as early as the first quarter of next year.
Infrastructure and parental authority play
Mann expects investor preference to tilt towards infrastructure and custody, particularly where revenue is recurring or subscription-based rather than tightly coupled to daily token prices. She says the pitch that resonates in public markets is stability, business models that can defend performance even as crypto volatility rises.
Stablecoin payments and treasury-like platforms
Mann sees stablecoin-related issuers and treasury platforms as increasingly viable public candidates as legal frameworks strengthen on both sides of the Atlantic. She says the GENIUS Act provides a clearer path in the US, while MiCA has done the same in Europe. Her view is that this creates a “more robust legal framework for fiat-backed stablecoin issuers and payment platforms that closely resemble regulated financial institutions,” structures that public investors already know how to underwrite.
What could limit the 2026 IPO window?
Mann is aware that tailwinds do not eliminate the gatekeepers. She says “valuation discipline is back in the space,” pointing to recent tech IPOs where companies were generally bigger and more mature when they debuted. In her view, crypto IPO candidates in 2026 will be judged against the same bar.
This means that preparedness is important. Mann says investors will look for high-quality digital asset companies, firms that can demonstrate they are operationally prepared, can withstand scrutiny and have a consistent equity history.
She also highlights macro uncertainty across regions as a variable that can quickly tighten risk budgets. And she points to the latest market move: a sharp pullback in crypto prices since October. If that weakness continues, or if it’s linked to a broader revaluation of tech or AI valuations, Mann says it could likely close the IPO window and reduce the number of crypto companies that could realistically go public in 2026.
On the other hand, Mann says a rebound can quickly change the calculus. If the markets recover and bitcoin makes new highs, she expects more companies to try to capitalize on the wave, especially if the regulatory stance continues to move in a pro-digital-assets direction.
The bottom line for 2026
Mann suggests that 2025 tested whether crypto companies can go public again. 2026 will test whether they can do it in a way that lasts.
