In brief
- Ledger is reportedly preparing a potential $4 billion U.S. IPO with Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, and Barclays, as crypto custody demand rises among institutional investors.
- The move follows BitGo’s NYSE debut as 2026’s first crypto IPO, although a mixed post-listing performance across recent crypto stocks signals an uneven market appetite.
- Experts say custody regulation and institutional capital could support Ledger’s growth, but warn that macro tightening and crypto market trajectory may shape IPO outcomes.
Crypto hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger has enlisted Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, and Barclays to lead a U.S. initial public offering that could value the company at more than $4 billion as crypto custody becomes a critical infrastructure play for institutional investors.
The deal could materialize as soon as this year, although plans remain subject to change, according to people familiar with the matter, as cited in a Financial Times report on Friday.
The New York Stock Exchange listing plan adds Ledger to a queue of crypto firms pursuing U.S. listings amid a more favorable regulatory environment under President Donald Trump, who has positioned America as a hub for digital asset innovation since returning to office.
Just this week, crypto wallet and custody provider BitGo listed on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming 2026’s first digital assets IPO, offering 111,821,595 shares to raise up to $213 million at a nearly $2 billion valuation.
The crypto IPO outlook
Market conditions for crypto IPOs remain mixed.
While 2025 saw stablecoin issuer Circle’s shares spike to nearly 10 times their IPO price, most crypto stocks have declined over the past three to six months alongside Bitcoin’s retreat, even as major stock indices hover near all-time highs.
Musheer Ahmed, founder and managing director of Finstep Asia, told Decrypt that if macro conditions tighten in 2026, “crypto IPOs are likely to get hit on both fronts—one being on the uptake and subscription, so you may not have a great IPO, and secondly is the post-listing price appreciation.”
He added that if the crypto market ticks up, “there would be more potential for the crypto-linked IPOs to do better, provided the broader macro and economic situation has not gone bad and is neutral to sideways.”
Bitcoin is currently trading at $89,147, down 6.6% over the past seven days, while the total crypto market cap stands above $3 trillion, slipping 0.8% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.
On prediction market Myriad, owned by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan, users place a 31% chance on Bitcoin’s next move taking it to $69,000 rather than $100,000—up from 16% at the start of the week.
“Custody is a major theme” across large jurisdictions, Ahmed said, noting that tighter custody regulations align with Ledger’s core business and that rising institutional entry into virtual assets could drive demand for Ledger as a custody partner.
Marcin Kazmierczak, co-founder and COO of modular oracle Redstone, told Decrypt the regulatory climate favors Ledger despite ongoing market uncertainty.
“We’re seeing institutional capital enter the space precisely because there’s clarity emerging—BlackRock, VanEck, Hamilton Lane, Apollo aren’t moving without conviction on the regulatory trajectory,” he said.
Kazmierczak noted that Ledger faces different risks than trading platforms, explaining that hardware wallet adoption is “more resilient to regulatory whiplash than trading volumes or DeFi TVL. If regulation tightens, people still need secure self-custody.”
He added that Ledger’s revenue remains exposed to consumer hardware cycles—warning that “another prolonged downturn absolutely impacts that, we saw this in 2022”—but noting that the IPO may benefit from “a stronger institutional cycle than pure retail enthusiasm.”
Decrypt has reached out to Ledger, Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, and Barclays for comment.
The recent wave of crypto IPOs follows years of stagnation after Coinbase’s 2021 Nasdaq debut.
Last year, crypto firms including Circle, Gemini, and Bullish all went public in the US as regulatory tailwinds and renewed retail interest reopened public markets for digital asset companies.
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Source: https://decrypt.co/355623/hardware-wallet-manufacturer-ledger-eyes-4b-us-ipo-listing-report
