Ledger pauses U.S. IPO plans as crypto weakness chills demand. Kraken and Consensys also delayed listings. BitGo’s post-IPO slide sets a harsh public benchmark.
Crypto hardware wallet maker Ledger has paused plans for a U.S. initial public offering. Weak crypto market conditions have chilled investor demand for new listings, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Paris-based firm had explored a listing that could have valued it near $4 billion, with Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, and Barclays advising. No draft S-1 registration statement has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, a step that signals formal intent. Ledger is instead considering alternatives, including a private capital raise, one source said.
The decision makes Ledger the latest digital asset company to retreat from public markets. Kraken and Consensys have also pulled back from listing plans, marking a broad withdrawal from the 2025 wave of crypto IPOs. For traders, the readthrough extends beyond the hardware wallet niche. It signals that public equity investors are repricing the entire sector, compressing valuations that private funding rounds only recently supported.
The shelved IPO reverses the momentum from earlier this year, when Ledger engaged the three banks to evaluate a 2026 listing. The potential $4 billion valuation would have represented a significant premium over the $1.5 billion the company achieved in a 2023 funding round led by True Global Ventures and 10T Holdings. A public float at that level would have tested whether institutional investors would accept a multiple based on custody and wallet revenue during a down cycle for spot crypto trading.
Public market conditions for crypto-exposed stocks have deteriorated. Bitcoin has traded around $80,000 in recent weeks after reaching higher levels in late 2025. Ether has held near the mid-$2,000 range. More important for equity valuations, spot trading volumes have declined, and venture funding tied to crypto startups has dropped. For a planned IPO, weak volumes compress estimated revenue growth, the key input that underwriters use to pitch a deal to institutional accounts.
Ledger’s core business – protecting private keys that control access to cryptocurrencies – generates fee income from hardware wallet sales and its Ledger Enterprise platform, which serves banks, asset managers, and stablecoin issuers. Those revenue streams are less correlated with daily exchange volumes than a pure exchange. The overall risk-off tone still made the timing untenable. The company has sold more than seven million wallets and says it secures over $100 billion in digital assets.
The Ledger move does not sit in isolation. A series of companies that filed or prepared filings in the 2025 window have pulled back:
An IPO window works only when public investors are willing to absorb new issuance at or near the last private round’s valuation. The trio of pauses shows that demand is absent at the prices insiders expected. Equity strategists point to a classic dynamic: when liquid token markets fall, the public equity comps – listed crypto-adjacent names – see their multiples contract. That immediately makes a private company’s last-round valuation look rich, forcing a delay or a down-round.
Private funding markets have not yet fully adjusted. Ledger’s 2023 round at $1.5 billion may still be defensible. The IPO target of $4 billion was anchored to a more bullish market. The gap between that ambition and where public investors would transact today is the practical reason no S-1 has been filed.
BitGo, the crypto custody firm that actually completed a U.S. IPO in January, offers a live test case. The company raised roughly $213 million, pricing shares at $18, above the marketed range. The stock rose during its first day of trading. It later fell below the offer price and now trades far lower, according to market participants cited by CoinDesk.
The slide matters because it sets a public benchmark. Any private crypto firm eyeing a listing must now explain why its valuation deserves a premium to BitGo’s battered price, not a premium to a 2023 or 2024 funding round. That repricing is spreading across the pipeline, which is why Ledger, Kraken, and Consensys have all stepped back.
Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, and Barclays were mandated to lead the Ledger offering. The loss of a $4 billion deal, even one that had not reached the filing stage, trims the equity capital markets fee pool for 2026. For Goldman Sachs (GS stock page – Alpha Score 51/100, Mixed) and Barclays (BCS stock page – Alpha Score 59/100, Moderate), the direct revenue hit is small relative to their diversified investment banking franchises. Both firms have substantial M&A advisory and debt underwriting revenue that buffers any single mandate loss.
The more important signal for bank stocks is the pipeline breadth. If the crypto equity freeze persists, it removes an entire sector’s worth of potential IPO and follow-on issuance fees for the rest of the year. That affects not just the three named banks but the broader equity capital markets desks that have been staffing up for digital asset mandates since 2024. A sustained shutout would show up in second-half ECM revenue across the street, though it is too early to quantify.
A common mistake is to assume that an IPO delay leaves a company’s valuation unchanged. In most cases, the delay is itself a signal that the last-round price is out of line with public market reality. For Ledger, the shift to exploring a private raise raises the question of whether new investors will accept the $1.5 billion benchmark from 2023 or demand a lower entry price.
The crypto IPO window may reopen only when spot volumes recover and equity markets start rewarding crypto exposure again. Until then, private companies seeking capital will likely face tougher terms. Public comps – including BitGo and any exchange-traded products linked to Bitcoin (BTC) – will serve as daily reality checks. For banks, the lost fees are a minor drag. For the crypto sector, the valuation reset is the main event, and it is only beginning to play out across the private fundraising landscape.
Prepared with AlphaScala research tooling and grounded in primary market data: live prices, fundamentals, SEC filings, hedge-fund holdings, and insider activity. Each story is checked against AlphaScala publishing rules before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.