Bullish (BLSH) posted a $280 million net loss for the second quarter of 2026, driven mostly by a Bitcoin writedown, yet its shares rose to $27.50. Investors focused on adjusted revenue and EBITDA figures that stripped out the crypto markdown rather than the GAAP loss itself.
Bitcoin writedown drives the headline loss
Bullish, the Peter Thiel-backed digital asset exchange trading on the NYSE under ticker BLSH, posted a net loss of $280 million for the second quarter of 2026. Investors responded by sending shares up 11.7% to $27.50. The loss amounted to $1.78 per diluted share. That is a reversal from the $108.3 million profit, or $0.93 per share, the company reported in Q2 2025.
Yet the headline number obscures what moved the market. Bullish posted $92.6 million in adjusted revenue and $29.5 million in adjusted EBITDA, metrics that strip out swings in crypto asset valuations. Some $244.6 million of the loss came from a markdown on its Bitcoin holdings: companies that hold Bitcoin on their balance sheets must write it down when its price falls below purchase cost, but cannot mark it back up when it recovers.
Well below the IPO high, but improving
The quarter's loss marked an improvement over the prior one. Bullish's net loss in Q1 2026 had reached $604.9 million. Meanwhile the stock remains far from its debut: Bullish made its NYSE debut in August 2025 at an initial price of $37 per share.
Shares surged to nearly $70 on the first day of trading, briefly pushing the company's market cap above $10 billion. The $27.50 share price represents a roughly 60% drop from that first-day high. Total digital asset sales for the quarter hit $32.6 billion, and CEO Tom Farley pointed to growth prospects and the company's planned acquisition of Equiniti as evidence Bullish is building for scale.
Accounting rules could reshape future results
Under generally accepted accounting principles, crypto assets count as indefinite-lived intangible assets, so impairment charges hit the income statement when prices drop, but recoveries aren't recognized until the asset is sold. The FASB's updated fair value accounting rules, which allow companies to recognize both gains and losses, are being adopted on varying timelines, and how Bullish implements them could change how its financial statements read in future quarters.
Source: Crypto Briefing
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