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, amounting to $1.78 per diluted share, stands in sharp contrast to the $108.3 million profit ($0.93 per share) the company reported in Q2 2025. But the headline number obscures what actually moved markets: Bullish posted $92.6 million in adjusted revenue and $29.5 million in adjusted EBITDA, metrics that strip out the noise of volatile crypto asset valuations.
A Bitcoin-sized hole in the balance sheet
The overwhelming majority of the loss, some $244.6 million, came from a markdown on Bitcoin holdings. Companies that hold Bitcoin on their balance sheets are required under current accounting rules to write down the asset when its price falls below purchase cost, but can’t mark it back up when it recovers.
Q2’s $280 million loss was actually a significant improvement over Q1 2026, when the company reported a net loss of $604.9 million.
