Bullish Expands to 20 U.S. States After Winning New York Approval

Bullish, a crypto trading platform designed for institutions, has officially gone live across 20 U.S. states after securing both a BitLicense and a money transmission license from the New York State Department of Financial Services last month.

First trades and early clients

On its first day of U.S. operations, Bullish launched spot trading with two institutional players: BitGo, a well-known crypto infrastructure firm, and Nonco, a crypto brokerage. The company says its services will now be available in major markets like California, Florida, Arizona, Washington DC, and New York, among others.

A BitLicense is one of the toughest licenses to acquire in the U.S. crypto sector, as it is required for transmitting, issuing, or custodial services involving digital assets within New York.

Strong regulatory tailwinds

The timing of the launch aligns with broader momentum in Washington, where the Trump administration has been encouraging institutional adoption of digital assets. Industry giants such as Coinbase, Binance, and even Stripe have been expanding their crypto-as-a-service and stablecoin offerings to serve U.S. institutions.

Although Bullish had already processed $1.5 trillion in trades globally since its 2021 launch, this marks its first major step into the world’s largest market. According to its president Chris Tyrer, the platform blends a traditional central limit order book with an automated market maker model, aiming to deliver both deep liquidity and efficient execution.

Fees designed for serious traders

Bullish is targeting hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, fintechs, market makers, and neobanks. To attract this audience, it’s offering 0% maker fees for institutional accounts and 0% trading fees for advanced retail traders in approved states.

“Bullish was built for institutions,” said Tyrer. “Now we’re bringing that same standard of performance to advanced traders across the U.S.”

Beyond the larger markets, Bullish is also now active in states such as Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming, and the territory of Puerto Rico.

Market reaction

Despite the positive expansion news, Bullish (BLSH) stock slipped 4.4% to $60.80 on Wednesday, according to Google Finance. Still, the stock remains up more than 60% from its August IPO price of $37, pushing its market cap to around $9 billion.