Written by: jk

Yesterday, the New York Stock Exchange trading floor welcomed the first cryptocurrency industry IPO of the new year: the listing bell for digital asset custody provider BitGo Holdings (NYSE: BTGO) has rung. Established in 2013 and managing over $100 billion in assets, this industry leader officially entered the capital market with an issuance price of $18, raising $212.8 million and surpassing a valuation of $2 billion.

What company is BitGo? Why haven't retail investors heard much about it?

BitGo was established in 2013 and is headquartered in South Dakota, USA. It is the world's largest independent digital asset custody institution. The company was co-founded by internet technology pioneers Mike Belshe and Ben Davenport, with Belshe being one of the first engineers on the Google Chrome browser team and a principal author of the HTTP/2.0 protocol.

Currently, BitGo serves over 4,900 institutional clients globally, managing assets exceeding $104 billion, with clients spanning more than 50 countries. The Bitcoin transaction volume handled by the company accounts for about 20% of the global total, covering cryptocurrency exchanges, hedge funds, asset management firms, as well as traditional enterprises like Nike and NYU Langone Medical Center.

BitGo's core business includes: digital asset custody (cold storage and hot wallets), BitGo Prime trading and lending platform, Go Network real-time settlement network, staking services, and exclusive custody of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC). It is worth mentioning that the company maintains a perfect record of 12 years without security incidents.

In terms of regulatory compliance, BitGo received approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in December 2025, becoming the first crypto custodian company to obtain a federal bank charter. Additionally, it holds operational licenses from various jurisdictions including the EU's MiCA license and the UAE's VARA license.

First-day performance: surged at the opening and then retreated.

BitGo's stock opened at $22.43, up 24.6% from the issue price of $18, reaching a high of $24.50 during the session, with an increase of 36%, but significantly pulled back near the close, ultimately closing at $18.49, a slight increase of only 2.7% from the issue price.

The IPO issue price is set at $18 per share, higher than the previous market expectation range of $15-17, with a total issuance of about 11.82 million Class A common shares, raising approximately $212.8 million. Based on the issue price, the company is valued at approximately $2.08 billion, an increase from the $1.75 billion valuation during the Series C financing in August 2023.

Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are serving as co-managers for this IPO. It is reported that the IPO received about 13 times oversubscription.

Rapid revenue growth, but profit margins face pressure.

According to the prospectus, BitGo achieved revenue of $3.08 billion in fiscal 2024, with a net profit of $156.6 million, successfully reversing a loss of $2.1 million in fiscal 2023. In the first half of 2025, the company's revenue surged to $4.19 billion, a year-on-year increase of approximately 274%, but net profit fell to $12.6 million, down 59% year-on-year, mainly due to significant investments in infrastructure and team expansion.

It is important to note that BitGo's revenue composition is quite unique. According to accounting standards, the company must record the full amount of customer transactions as revenue while accounting for the asset acquisition costs as expenses. Therefore, although the on-paper revenue reaches tens of billions of dollars, the actual net income after deducting costs is much smaller. For example, in the first half of 2025, the net income from digital asset sales was only $34.7 million, while the net income from staking was $40.5 million, and net income from stablecoin-as-a-service was $2.7 million.

The company's operating expenses for 2024 reached $3.09 billion, with the cost of digital asset sales accounting for $2.53 billion. Subscription and service revenues remained relatively stable, reaching $120.7 million in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 56%.

Analysts Support: Target Price Looking at $26.5

Although the first-day performance was flat, several analysts still see long-term investment value in BitGo. Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at investment management firm VanEck, gave a target price of $26.50, indicating an upside of 47% from the IPO price, corresponding to a market capitalization of approximately $3 billion.

Sigel pointed out that BitGo is the first publicly listed company to provide investors with exposure purely to custody services, with its custody and staking services contributing over 80% of revenue, compared to competitors (like Coinbase or Galaxy Digital) that heavily rely on trading volume, thus offering stronger revenue stability and higher profit quality. He expects BitGo to achieve over $400 million in revenue and $120 million in EBITDA by 2028.

'BitGo maintains an impeccable safety record and has established key competitive barriers in regulatory compliance,' Sigel stated. 'Among digital asset projects with a market cap exceeding $2 billion, the vast majority have never generated a single penny in net profit for their holders, whereas BitGo's equity is clearly a higher quality investment target.'

He also added that if Bitcoin's price rises by 33%, the 2,369 Bitcoins held by BitGo will bring an appreciation of $72 million to the company's market value, further supporting its fair valuation of $3 billion.

The restart signal for the crypto IPO market, with several companies queued to go public.

BitGo's listing is seen as a landmark event signaling the restart of the cryptocurrency IPO market after experiencing a winter in Q4 2025. In the first half of 2025, several crypto firms, including stablecoin issuer Circle (with a listing valuation of around $7 billion), exchange Gemini, and Bullish successfully went public. However, as Bitcoin fell 29% from its historical high of $126,000 to the current approximately $89,000, crypto-related stocks also underwent significant adjustments.

Industry insiders generally believe that BitGo's market performance will become an important indicator for the crypto IPO trend in 2026. It is understood that crypto exchange Kraken and ETF provider Grayscale are both preparing for IPO plans, expected to enter the capital market within this year.

BitGo CEO Mike Belshe remains optimistic about the prospects: 'The improved regulatory environment over the past year has allowed all financial institutions to participate in the digital asset market, effectively doubling our potential customer base.'

Special Innovation: Stock Synchronized on the Blockchain

Notably, BitGo has chosen a more 'crypto-native' path to listing—by collaborating with Ondo Finance to tokenize its stock, allowing it to trade on blockchain networks like Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain. This is one of the first cases among newly listed companies in the U.S. to achieve global and real-time trading of stocks, providing overseas investors with almost instant access.

Although the first-day closing increase was as high as Circle's, BitGo, as an infrastructure provider offering 'utilities' level services in the crypto ecosystem, still has its long-term value widely recognized by institutional investors. With traditional financial institutions accelerating their embrace of digital assets, whether BitGo can meet analysts' high expectations will be continuously monitored and reported by Odaily Planet Daily.