Crypto exchange Bullish reported a $604.9 million loss in Q1, even though it said its underlying business still made money.
Bullish, the NYSE-listed owner of the Bullish crypto exchange and CoinDesk, reported a huge Q1 loss on paper, even though the company said its underlying business stayed profitable.
In its May 14 earnings release, Bullish posted a $604.9 million net loss for the quarter, wider than a $348.6 million loss a year earlier. However, after adjusting for some accounting fluctuations, which were largely due to the fluctuation in value of crypto, the exchange recorded an adjusted net income of around $20 million.
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The main hit came from crypto on the balance sheet. Bullish recorded a $559.6 million net change in the fair value of cryptocurrencies held, plus $92.4 million in losses tied to financial assets.
Thus, according to normal accounting rules, the loss was in excess of half a billion dollars. However, according to the firm’s own measures, which exclude some crypto movements, it still made money.
CoinDesk Helps Revenue
There was also a weak trading line in the report. The crypto trading declined from $80.2 billion to $51.8 billion. Meanwhile, the transaction revenue decreased from $42 million to $30 million.
However, the bright spot was in the services category. Revenue grew to $92.8 million from $62.4 million, aided by subscription and service revenue that shot up to $54.8 million from $19.7 million. According to Bullish, this includes revenues earned through the crypto news website CoinDesk and data provider CCData.
Bullish also leaned into its bigger tokenization plan. The company said it signed a deal to buy Equiniti for $4.2 billion earlier in May, while Bullish CEO Tom Farley said the deal would give Bullish “end-to-end tokenization services, a unied transfer agent ledger, and broad blue-chip issuer relationships.”
Another sharp detail came from options. Bullish said options trading volume reached $11.6 billion in the quarter, while open interest hit a 14% market share in April.
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