BLSH

Nearly every adult has taken a word-association test (when you hear this word, what's the first word that comes to mind?), the practice of which originated with Swiss psychologist Carl Jung (1875-1961).

Chairman Blumer and CEO Farley (McDermid/Reuters/WSJ)

So when you see this ticker symbol of a company that went public this week--BLSH--, what is the first word that you think of? If you said the correct name, Bullish, you are a better man than I. The stock's performance did live up to its name.

Shares of Bullish soared 84% in the cryptocurrency exchange’s initial public offering Wednesday, highlighting the challenge of pricing an IPO in today’s exuberant market.

Just last month, shares of software company Figma jumped 250% in their debut. That prompted whispers about the risks of a company underpricing an IPO and potentially leaving billions of dollars on the table.

The ideal first-day gains are typically around 20% to 30%, many bankers who work on deals say. Bullish closed the day at $68, giving it a market capitalization of roughly $10 billion. Its stock, which trades under the symbol “BLSH,” was temporarily paused after it began trading...

Bullish priced its IPO at $37, above its already increased price range, raising roughly $1.1 billion. The company allocated about 20% of the offering to individual investors—a larger chunk than is typical—in part to prevent a run-up in the stock price once shares start trading Wednesday, according to a person close to the deal. Most IPOs allocate less than half of that to individual investors...

Bullish launched in 2021 and is backed by prominent investors including Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and hedge-fund manager Louis Bacon. The exchange’s total trading volume had exceeded $1.25 trillion as of March this year.

Were I 30 years younger, I might invest in various aspects of the cryptocurrency market. However, it's hard for me to stomach the volatility and even harder to rationalize an investment in something immaterial, and yes, I know, that the dollar and other fiat currencies are also in the end only a little more solid than bitcoin.

For the sake of the stock market and the hopes of risk-taking investors, I hope it is not all BLSH.