Bullish Acquires Equiniti in $4 Billion Tokenization Bet

Digital asset platform Bullish is acquiring global transfer agent Equiniti for $4.2 billion.

The deal is designed to create a transfer agent for tokenized securities and “position Bullish to lead the shift toward blockchain-native capital markets infrastructure,” the company said in a news release Tuesday (May 5).

“Tokenization is a once-in-a-generation shift in how capital markets operate, the defining infrastructure trend of the next 25 years,” Bullish CEO Tom Farley said in the release.

“Broad adoption at institutional scale requires three things: end-to-end tokenization services, a single, unified ledger, and a broad base of blue-chip issuer relationships, at scale. This combination delivers all three and I believe it uniquely positions us to lead the transition to tokenized securities.”

Bullish says the deal combines Equiniti’s transfer agent offering with its token design, issuance, operation, compliance and distribution — as well as access to media, data and research from Bullish-owned CoinDesk.

Equiniti serves as a system of record for close to 3,000 blue-chip publicly traded companies, processing approximately $500 billion in annual payments and supporting more than 20 million verified shareholders, the release added.

“As capital markets move into a blockchain era with tokenized securities, the combination will address a foundational gap in market infrastructure: the absence of a transfer agent built for the blockchain,” Bullish said.

In other tokenization news, PYMNTS wrote last month about the growing popularity of tokenized deposits, following the news that HSBC was expanding its efforts on that front into the U.S.

Tokenized deposits are created when a bank converts a client’s traditional deposit into a digital token on a blockchain or distributed ledger.

“Each token represents a claim on the underlying deposit, preserving its status as bank money,” that report said.

“Crucially, these systems are typically permissioned, meaning that only authorized participants, such as banks and their clients, can access the network. This distinguishes tokenized deposits from public cryptocurrencies and better aligns them within existing regulatory frameworks.”

This has both operational and strategic implications for chief financial officers, the report continued, as real-time treasury capabilities let finance leaders optimize working capital with a level of precision that was once unattainable.

“Intraday liquidity — once a blind spot — becomes visible and actionable. Idle balances can be redeployed dynamically, and funding decisions can be made based on current, rather than historical, data,” PYMNTS wrote.