🏆 Crypto IPOs steal the spotlight

PLUS: After two sleepy years, IPOs are back with $4B raised in one week. Crypto firms led demand, Solana whales loaded up, and the UK is flirting with the world’s first stablecoin cap.

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Cryptopolitan News
September 15, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

Six IPOs. Four billion dollars. And a market that looks like it’s finally waking up after two years of hitting snooze.

The past week was the busiest U.S. IPO stretch since 2021, with names like Klarna, Figure, and Gemini stepping up to ring the bell. Add in Via, Legence, and even a coffee chain called Black Rock (yes a coffee chain, not our favourite BlackRock), and you’ve got one of the most eclectic lineups in years.

But here’s the thing: raising money is the easy part. Holding the line after day one? That’s where the story gets messy.

So — How did they do?

  • Gemini: The Winklevoss twins delivered drama. Shares opened hot with a 45% jump, though gains cooled closer to 15–30% by close. Retail got a bigger slice than usual (30%), but anti-flipping rules mean no day-one casino.

  • Figure: Raised $787M, opened above range, and held on to a 44% day-one pop.

  • Klarna (Swedish fintech): The headliner. Priced high, rallied, then fizzled. Ended the week just above its offer price, a cautious debut for Europe’s star child.

  • Legence, Via, Black Rock Coffee: Opened soft, stayed soft. Sometimes hype just doesn’t translate. But this shows Crypto IPOs are currently of more interest to Wall Street and retail alike.

Companies seems to be ditching Europe for US (and not because of Tariffs)

Europe? Just 57 IPOs this year, raising $5.5B.
U.S.? 153 IPOs, raising $17.7B.

Even Klarna (Sweden’s pride), skipped Stockholm for Nasdaq. Liquidity, consistency, and a single regulator (the SEC) beat Europe’s fragmented, slow system. Private equity sellers don’t want to wait 9 months to go public when they can exit in 6 weeks with an M&A deal.

Bottom line: the U.S. is the only stage where big debuts still get attention.

What this week tells us

  1. Investors will buy in, but they want fundamentals, profitability, and clean balance sheets.

  2. Crypto names matter. Gemini and Figure pulled in oversubscription demand 25x the stock offered. That signals real appetite for blockchain-linked firms, even after years of scandals.

  3. Momentum isn’t everything. IPO pops fade fast. Day-two performance is separating hype from staying power.

  4. More deals are coming. StubHub and Netskope are next. Bankers think September could be the first back-to-back IPO boom month since December 2021.

If you’re a founder eyeing the public markets, this week says two things: investors are back, but they’re choosy. And if you’re a trader, it says: watch the after-market, not just the open.

Institutions can’t get enough of Crypto

Galaxy Digital scooped up 1.2M SOL ($300M) in a single day, adding to a spree of more than $1.5B worth over the past week. The buys came straight off Coinbase, Binance, and Bybit, then parked safely in Fireblocks custody.

  • Galaxy, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin are also launching a $1.65B Solana treasury strategy, aimed at positioning Solana as the financial rails of the future.

  • Mike Novogratz calls this the “season of Solana,” and with ETFs on deck by October, he may not be wrong.

  • SOL is up 30% in 30 days, now trading near $243.

Capital Group, one of Wall Street’s most conservative giants, quietly turned a $500M Bitcoin-linked bet into more than $6B.

  • Back in 2021, they bought 12% of MicroStrategy (now Strategy). After a 2,200% stock rally, that stake is worth $6.2B.

  • They also picked up Metaplanet (Japan) and MARA Holdings, part of the now 1M BTC held by public firms globally.

Polygon Labs just teamed up with Dubai-based Cypher Capital to make its POL token an institutional-grade asset for funds, corporates, and asset managers across the region.

  • The plan: exclusive roundtables, custom yield products, and compliant on-ramps to make it easier for big money to allocate to POL.

  • CEO Sandeep Nailwal called this the first of “many steps” to put POL in institutional portfolios, noting that demand for real yield in crypto is accelerating.

  • Cypher Capital brings the local network and regulatory know-how, while Polygon is pushing its GigaGas roadmap to hit sub-5 second finality and 1,000+ TPS, performance numbers meant to impress professionals.

 đź‘€ Are you watching: UK Wants to cap Stablecoins

The Bank of England is floating a rule that would cap stablecoin holdings at £10–20K for individuals and £10M for companies.

If it happens, the UK would be the only major economy putting hard limits on stablecoins while the US and EU are moving the other way with clearer, pro-growth frameworks.

Critics are furious:

  • Coinbase says the cap is “bad for savers, bad for the City, and bad for sterling.”

  • The UK Cryptoasset Business Council calls it unenforceable without intrusive digital ID tracking.

  • Payments Association argues it makes no sense when cash and bank deposits face no such limits.

The BoE insists caps would prevent “large and rapid outflows” from banks into crypto, protecting the system while new rails scale up. But it admits the rule would be “transitional”, with no clear exit plan.

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🎭 Culture Corner

Hyperliquid just wrapped up its own version of a talent show, only instead of roses or record deals the prize was the USDH ticker. Big names like Paxos, Frax, Ethena, Curve, and BitGo all threw their hats in the ring, but the validators crowned Native Markets as the winner. The choice sparked mixed reactions, with some stakers grumbling that the terms weren’t as strong as rival offers, but validator weight carried the day.

Now comes the rollout. Native Markets will start slow with capped minting and redeeming before opening the floodgates to an uncapped USDH/USDC market. It’s classic DeFi: messy governance, strong opinions, and a new stablecoin that could reshape Hyperliquid’s growing perp empire.

Marta from marketing has booked her flights

While you’re grinding charts and chasing yield, the real-world action is stacking up. The fall event calendar is packed, and if you’re serious about Web3, these are the places to be. Pack your bags, polish your pitch, and don’t forget to iron your branded hoodie.

  • Real World Asset Summit Brooklyn – The sharp suits meet tokenization. Sep 16–17, New York.

  • EDCON Tokyo – Ethereum devs, global leaders, and sushi-powered networking. Sep 16–19, Japan.

  • Blockchain Life Dubai – The big one. 15,000+ attendees, 200+ speakers, and the afterparties you’ll regret but never forget. Oct 28–29, Dubai.

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