Cryptocurrency trading firm FalconX has confidentially filed a draft S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the initial step toward a potential public listing, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
FalconX hired Wall Street heavyweight Cantor and other bankers to advise them on their initial public offering (IPO), said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the matter is private.
The California-based company’s initial public offering is not expected to occur until the end of the year, given market conditions, the person added. CoinDesk previously reported that Cantor was among the companies that submitted FalconX for potential listing.
Both FalconX and Cantor declined to comment.
FalconX is a brokerage and trading firm that primarily serves institutional clients, including hedge funds, asset managers and market makers. Founded in 2018, it operates as a premier digital asset broker and provides services such as trade execution, liquidity access, credit, and clearing. In June 2022, the company raised $150 million in a Series D funding round that valued the company at $8 billion.
Crypto companies entered 2026 expecting a strong year for IPOs after companies like Circle (CRCL) and CoinDesk’s parent company Bullish (BLSH) helped reignite investor appetite for digital asset companies in 2025.
However, since then, deteriorating market conditions, weaker trading volumes, and lackluster post-listing performance of newly public companies like BitGo (BTGO) have cooled enthusiasm for new cryptocurrency IPOs.
Several major crypto companies, including Payward, the parent company of Kraken; Consensys, Ethereum software developer; Hardware wallet maker Ledger and asset manager Grayscale have since postponed their IPO plans pending improved market conditions.
Some companies are still moving forward with their plans to go public. Blockchain.com said last week that it had confidentially filed for a US IPO with the SEC.
Meanwhile, Securitize agreed to merge with Cantor Equity Partners II, a Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company, in a deal that would make it one of the few publicly traded companies primarily focused on tokenized securities and real-world assets.
Read More: Cryptocurrency IPOs Could Create Massive $1 Trillion Market Amid Wave of Tokenization, Jefferies Says
