The crypto IPO market is slowing down in 2026, with four industry heavyweights delaying their IPOs. According to Christian Lopez, head of blockchain at Cohen & Company Capital Markets, investor caution now outweighs regulation. Will the sector regain the appetite of public markets before 2027?
In brief
- Payward (Kraken), Consensys, Ledger and Grayscale have postponed their IPO plans pending a more favorable market.
- Blockchain.com has confidentially filed for an IPO in the United States in May 2026.
- Christian Lopez, of Cohen & Company Capital Markets, anticipates a possible low point in the crypto cycle around October 2026.
Capital is turning away from crypto IPOs in favor of AI
The crypto IPO market slows markedly in 2026 as investors redirect their capital to other technology sectors.
Christian Lopez, head of blockchain and digital assets at Cohen & Company Capital Markets, places the turning point last October, when a liquidity event drained part of the ecosystem of its capital. Individual investors, traditional drivers of the crypto market, have since massively turned to artificial intelligence.
This rotation then extended to the most popular technology stocks, notably the shares of the seven giants of the sector grouped under the name Mag 7. More recently, however, even these AI-related stocks have suffered sharp correctionsa sign of a new reallocation of portfolios.
However, several companies were expecting a good year after the successful listings of Circle (CRCL) and Bullish (BLSH), the parent company of CoinDesk. Weak markets and disappointing performance of BitGo (BTGO) after its IPO have since dampened that optimism, a finding Lopez shared with CoinDesk.
Blockchain progresses despite the slowdown
Macroeconomic uncertainty amplifies investor caution. Expectations about interest rates and global deleveraging, including recent interventions by the Bank of Japan to support the yen, are weighing on appetite for high-beta assets like cryptos. Lopez estimates that the market may not significantly reopen to crypto listings until 2027, with a low point in the cycle expected around October.
Despite this slowdown, blockchain technology continues to gain ground in traditional finance. Morgan Stanley, Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange are developing tokenization settlement infrastructure, as the industry moves toward near-instantaneous settlement, from T+1 to T+0.
The OpenUSD network, which already brings together more than 140 financial institutions around a stablecoin infrastructure, illustrates this dynamic. According to Lopez, the long-term winners will be blockchain infrastructure providers rather than companies built around a single token, knowing that many small cryptos already struggle to raise funds on private markets.
In sum, the slowdown in crypto IPOs reflects less of a regulatory issue and more of an overall tightening of access to capital. The rotation towards AI, the uncertainty over rates and the expectation of a low point around October form the same movement of caution among investors.
Bitcoin, ether and solana should remain reference values, when thousands of more modest tokens risk disappearing within three to five years. A sorting that could permanently reshape the crypto landscape.
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