How $4.1B in EOS Investor Funds Ended Up Fueling a $10 Billion NYSE IPO

Block.one raised $4.1B from EOS investors, bought 164,000 Bitcoin, and IPO’d Bullish at $10B. Here’s what actually happened to the funds.

A market observer has shared a story that reads more like a financial thriller than a blockchain project. 

Between June 2017 and June 2018, Block.one ran the largest initial coin offering in crypto history. The Cayman Islands company raised $4.1 billion in ETH from retail investors for its EOS token. 

Investors believed they were funding the next Ethereum killer. What they actually funded was something else entirely.

How Block.one Used EOS ICO Funds to Build a Bitcoin Fortune

When the crypto winter hit in 2018, Bitcoin crashed hard. Prices fell to around $3,200. While panic swept through the market, Block.one CEO Brendan Blumer was buying. 

According to commentator Farea on X, Block.one converted a large portion of the $4.1 billion into Bitcoin. The company accumulated roughly 164,000 BTC at an average price near $6,000. That is approximately $1 billion spent on Bitcoin alone. The rest went into U.S. government bonds.

By 2021, that Bitcoin stash had grown to a value of $10 billion. The money investors thought was going toward a decentralized blockchain ecosystem had built one of the largest corporate Bitcoin treasuries in the world. 

The EOS blockchain did launch, but the relationship between investor funds and ecosystem development raised serious questions.

The SEC Fine and What Happened Next

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission took notice.

 In 2019, the SEC fined Block.one $24 million for conducting an unregistered securities offering. For a company that raised $4.1 billion, that fine worked out to less than 0.6% of total proceeds. No funds were returned to investors. 

Blumer and Block.one paid the penalty and moved on.

Block.one had also promised to invest $1 billion back into the EOS ecosystem. Critics and former supporters say that commitment was never fully honored. 

The EOS token underperformed against the broader crypto market. Block.one gradually stepped back from the project. The community responded with lawsuits and class action claims that are still working through the courts today.

Related Reading: Crypto Exchange Bullish Aims for $4.23B Valuation in IPO

Bullish IPO Turns Bitcoin Treasury Into a Public Company

Blumer did not stop after the SEC settlement. 

He used the Bitcoin treasury to seed a new venture: Bullish, a crypto exchange. He contributed 164,000 BTC, $100 million in cash, and 20 million EOS tokens as starting capital. 

Peter Thiel, Mike Novogratz, and Japanese bank Nomura joined as investors, adding $300 million more. Former New York Stock Exchange president Tom Farley came aboard as CEO. The total starting balance sheet exceeded $10 billion.

In August 2025, Bullish listed on the NYSE under the ticker BLSH. The company raised $1.1 billion at $37 per share. 

On its first day of trading, shares surged between 84% and 160%, closing near $68 to $70. The market cap hit over $10 billion almost immediately. 

Blumer, who retained a 26% to 30% stake in the company, became a billionaire. The funds that retail crypto investors contributed back in 2017 had completed a journey most of them never anticipated.

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