Bullish stated on December 22 that it had terminated its agreement with Far Peak SPAC. On Thursday, the Thiel-Backed exchange Bullish issued a joint statement with Far Peak about their merger. Based on the release, the companies decided to terminate their merger agreement partially because of time constraints.
The Bullish-Far Reach Agreement Falls Through
This merger between Bullish – a Peter Thiel-Backed crypto exchange intended for institutional investors – and Far Peak – a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) – was originally announced in July 2021. The acquisition has, nonetheless, stalled since then.
Eventually, on December 22, 2022, the firms issued a joint statement that their particular agreement – valued at $9 billion – would be terminated. According to the release, the decision is mainly motivated by a deadline for registration with the SEC. Due to that hurdle, Far Peak’s shareholders would not manage to take their vote before the end of the year.
Brendan Blumer, Chairman and CEO of Bullish, stated:
“Our quest to become a public company is taking longer than expected, but we respect the SEC’s ongoing work to lay new digital asset frameworks and clarify industry-specific disclosure and accounting complexities. I’m proud of the dedicated team of Bullish employees and advisors who have devoted countless hours to ensure Bullish operates with the highest standards of transparency and responsibility. This work has formed the operating foundation required to service our customers in the best and safest possible way.”
The previous president of the New York Stock Exchange who is the current CEO of far Reach, Thomas Farley, was set to become the chief executive officer of Bullish after the acquisition. He also expressed his disappointment saying that they were “unable to present the Bullish transaction to our Far Peak shareholders”.
What Is Bullish?
Bullish is a crypto exchange licensed in Gibraltar and targeted the “crypto whales” – unlike several other major exchanges, it mainly caters to institutional investors. It was launched in May 2021 by Block.One – another entity backed by Peter Thiel and hedge fund managers Alan Howard and Louis Bacon.
A few months after its initial launch, the crypto exchange announced its defined plans to go public on the New York Stock Exchange via its now-terminated deal with Peak Reach. The exchange leverages a private EOSIO-based blockchain to deploy a custom trading engine that has been noted for high performance.
Bullish was Thiel’s first big foray into digital asset companies after backing the neobank N26. N26 is a German digital challenger bank that was unveiled in 2013 and had a valuation of about $9 billion by late 2021. Earlier this year, it changed its classification from a German Limited Liability Company to a German Stock Corporation.