Ledger Pauses $4B U.S. IPO Over Market Conditions
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- Ledger paused its U.S. IPO plans due to difficult market conditions, according to two people familiar with the process, and has not yet filed a draft S-1 registration statement with the SEC.
- The French crypto security firm had hired Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, and Barclays in January for a potential listing that could have valued Ledger at roughly $4 billion — a tripling of its 2023 valuation per earlier FT reports.
- Ledger could pivot to raising capital privately as an alternative to waiting for public-market conditions to improve, according to one of the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
- Kraken froze its own multibillion-dollar IPO earlier in 2026 after confidentially filing with the SEC in late 2025, signaling a broader pullback among crypto firms eyeing public listings.
- BitGo, the only crypto-native company to IPO in 2026, raised about $213 million at $18 per share in January and surged more than 20% on its NYSE debut — but its shares are now trading roughly 36% below the offering price.
- Ledger appointed former Circle executive John Andrews as CFO in March and opened a New York office focused on its institutional Ledger Enterprise platform, part of a multimillion-dollar U.S. expansion creating dozens of new jobs.
Why it matters: Ledger's pause follows BitGo's roughly 36% post-IPO slide and Kraken's earlier freeze, suggesting the window for crypto public listings has effectively closed for now. Ledger had not even filed an S-1, so the delay is preemptive rather than reactive. With Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, and Barclays already on retainer for a potential $4 billion deal, the shelving leaves Ledger to choose between a private round or waiting out a market that has rejected the only crypto-native listing of 2026.
