Bullish, the institutional-focused crypto exchange trading on the NYSE under ticker BLSH, saw its shares climb roughly 10% in premarket trading on August 13 after dropping a Q2 2026 earnings report that managed to thread a very specific needle: look great on an adjusted basis, look terrifying on a GAAP basis.
Adjusted EBITDA hit $29.5 million for the quarter, more than tripling the $8.1 million it posted in Q2 2025. That translates to an approximately 32% margin. Adjusted revenue grew 62% year-over-year to $92.6 million. Shares moved from $24.63 to around $27.46 in early trading.
Record subscription revenue masks a trading volume decline
The star of the earnings release was subscription and services revenue, which reached a record $62.7 million. That number is doing a lot of heavy lifting, because the trading side of the business told a different story entirely.
Digital asset sales fell to $32.6 billion from $58.6 billion in the year-ago quarter. That’s a 44% decline in the metric that most people associate with crypto exchange performance. The fact that Bullish’s topline still grew 62% despite that drop says something meaningful about how CEO Tom Farley has been reshaping the revenue mix.
