Crypto trading firm FalconX has confidentially filed a proposed S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the first step toward a possible public listing, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
FalconX hired Wall Street heavyweight Cantor and other bankers to advise on its initial public offering (IPO), said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is private.
The California company’s IPO is not expected to take place before the end of the year, given market conditions, the source added. CoinDesk previously reported that Cantor was among the companies nominating FalconX for its potential listing.
FalconX and Cantor declined to comment.
FalconX is a brokerage and trading firm that primarily serves institutional clients, including hedge funds, asset managers and market makers. Founded in 2018, it operates as a primary digital asset broker, providing services such as trade execution, liquidity access, credit and clearing. In June 2022, the company raised $150 million in a Series D funding round that valued the company at $8 billion.
Crypto companies entered 2026 expecting a good year for IPOs after successful listings of companies such as Circle (CRCL) and Bullish (BLSH), the parent company of CoinDesk, helped reignite investor appetite for digital asset businesses in 2025.
Since then, however, deteriorating market conditions, low trading volumes, and lackluster post-listing performance of newly public companies such as BitGo (BTGO) have dampened enthusiasm for new cryptocurrency IPOs.
Several major crypto companies, including Payward, the parent company of Kraken; Consensys, Ethereum software developer; Hardware wallet maker Ledger and asset manager Grayscale have since postponed their IPO plans while waiting for market conditions to improve.
Some companies are still pursuing their IPO plans. Blockchain.com said last week that it had confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO with the SEC.
Meanwhile, Securitize agreed to merge with Cantor Equity Partners II, a Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company, in a deal that would make it one of the few publicly traded companies primarily focused on tokenized securities and real-world assets.
Read more: Crypto IPOs Could Create Massive $1 Trillion Market Amid Tokenization Wave, Jefferies Says
