Bullish generated record subscription, services and other revenue of $62.7 million during the second quarter of 2026, helping the institutional digital asset platform grow adjusted revenue sharply even as its core trading market softened.
The record services contribution helped adjusted revenue increase 62% year-over-year to $92.6 million from $57 million. Adjusted transaction revenue increased to $29.9 million from $24.1 million, showing that the growing non-transaction business contributed a significant portion of the overall increase.
Bullish’s subscription, services and other category includes a broad collection of revenue streams outside core exchange transaction fees and spreads. These include lending and liquidity services, interest from credit facilities and margin loans, interest earned on cash and stablecoins, liquidity-service fees and promotional income.
The category also includes CoinDesk-related businesses such as sponsorship revenue, event admissions and index-data licensing fees, along with net income generated from DeFi protocols excluding fair-value changes in the underlying digital assets. Bullish believes the combined measure provides a clearer view of its service-oriented businesses outside transaction-based exchange revenue.
Management said the results demonstrate the company’s cross-selling strategy. Customers can initially interact with Bullish through CoinDesk or its Consensus events and then expand their relationship into data, indices, liquidity services and exchange trading.
Institutional adoption of CoinDesk products also continued during the quarter. Morgan Stanley launched Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana exchange-traded products using CoinDesk benchmarks, with the products attracting more than $400 million of inflows during Q2.
Bullish generated adjusted EBITDA of $29.5 million, up from $8.1 million a year earlier, while adjusted net income improved to $14.3 million from a $6 million adjusted loss. These results came despite digital asset sales declining to $32.6 billion from $58.6 billion.
Reported IFRS results were considerably more volatile. Bullish recorded a Q2 net loss of $280 million compared with net income of $108.3 million a year earlier. The company’s adjusted measures remove items including certain remeasurement gains and losses on digital assets that Bullish says are held to facilitate customer trading rather than to take directional positions.
Bullish is also expanding its regulated market infrastructure. The company received approval from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission for tokenized securities, making it one of the first fully regulated venues authorized to offer secondary trading in issuer-sponsored tokenized securities.
The proposed acquisition of Equiniti is expected to further expand that strategy. Bullish expects the transaction to close in early 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary conditions, and has said the combination would allow it to offer infrastructure spanning issuance, listing, trading and tracking of issuer-sponsored tokens.
KEY QUOTE:
“Our diversified model delivered again this quarter: record subscription, services and other revenue of $62.7 million drove adjusted revenue up 62% year over year, more than offsetting a softer trading market. That is our cross-sell engine at work, clients arrive through CoinDesk and Consensus and expand across data, indices, liquidity, and the exchange.”
Dave Bonanno, CFO of Bullish
