SoftBank to Invest $75M in Peter Thiel-Backed Crypto Exchange Bullish

SB Northstar, an investment arm of Tokyo-based SoftBank, has agreed to invest $75 million in Block.one’s new subsidiary crypto exchange, Bullish.

According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SoftBank will purchase 7.5 million shares for $10 each at the time of Bullish's upcoming special purpose acquisition (SPAC) deal. Bullish has been valued at $9 billion. 

Bullish, which is backed by billionaire investor Peter Thiel and crypto investment firms like Galaxy Digital, is on track to go public by the end of 2021 via a SPAC merger with Thomas Farley's Far Peak Acquisition Corp . Farley, a former president of the New York Stock Exchange, will become Bullish’s CEO. Block.one CEO Brendan Blumer will serve as chairman.

Some in the crypto sphere have raised eyebrows at the newly launched Bullish’s plans to go public, suggesting that it is part of an effort to raise the value of the Block.one-associated EOS blockchain. Others, including billionaire crypto investor Sam Bankman-Fried, suggest Bullish’s real aim is to be a MicroStrategy-esque stock proxy for crypto. MicroStrategy is a business software company that has invested heavily into bitcoin.