Recently, Amber Group's digital wealth management platform, Amber Premium, officially merged with U.S.-listed company iClick Interactive. The merged entity has been renamed "Amber International Holding Limited" and began trading on Nasdaq yesterday under the new ticker symbol "AMBR."

AMBR closed at $11 yesterday, with a total trading volume of $3.06 million and a market cap of $960 million.

In addition to Amber Group, several other crypto companies have either completed or are planning IPOs this year. At the beginning of this year, Fold Holdings (FLD), a Bitcoin rewards financial services company, also went public on Nasdaq, and Circle is planning to complete its IPO this year.

Multiple crypto firms are actively pursuing IPOs. Last week, Bloomberg revealed that Gemini has secretly filed for an IPO and is working with Goldman Sachs and Citigroup on the issuance. Meanwhile, crypto exchange Kraken is actively preparing for an IPO in the first quarter of 2026.

The crypto-friendly environment under Trump is expected to make 2025 the inaugural year for crypto IPOs.

Amber Group's Journey to Listing After 8 Years and Over $600 Million in Funding

In October 2021, Michael Wu, co-founder and CEO of Amber Group, told the South China Morning Post that the company was actively considering going public within the next two years, with the United States being the preferred location.

Although slightly later than the initial expected timeline, Amber Group has finally achieved its listing in the United States through a merger.

The entity involved in the merger is Amber DWM, the holding company of Amber Group's digital wealth management business, Amber Premium. Amber Premium primarily offers asset management solutions to high-net-worth clients and institutions.

Before the merger, Amber DWM underwent a series of asset restructuring, including the acquisition of all shares in its exchange platform, WhaleFin Markets Limited. According to the merger agreement, Amber DWM's shareholders will hold approximately 90% of the shares and 97% of the voting rights in the merged company.

Michael Wu, co-founder of Amber Group, will serve as the chairman of the board of the merged company, Amber International, providing strategic direction. Wayne Huo, another co-founder, has been appointed as the CEO and director, responsible for the company's day-to-day operations.

As a veteran in crypto asset management, Amber Group has a vast product matrix. Its core business mainly focuses on providing customized digital wealth management services for high-net-worth individuals and institutions. The company helps clients manage digital assets through quantitative trading and professional strategies, as well as offering market-making services and cryptocurrency derivatives trading.

According to its official website, Amber Group has accumulated a trading volume of $1 trillion and serves over 2,000 institutional clients.

In terms of asset management scale and revenue, Amber Group has disclosed very little specific financial data in recent years. The latest public data dates back to 2022, when Amber claimed to have an asset scale of over $5 billion, with a revenue of $250 million in the first half of 2022.

From 2020 to 2022, Amber Group also rapidly expanded. In addition to a significant increase in asset management scale, the company completed at least four rounds of financing during this period, raising a total of nearly $630 million. The investors included traditional institutions such as Temasek, Sequoia China, Tiger Global, and Tiger Securities, as well as Web3 investors like Distributed Capital, Pantera Capital, Paradigm, and Coinbase Ventures.

In 2022, after completing a $200 million Series B round led by Temasek, Amber Group's valuation reached $3 billion.

However, following the FTX scandal and the market entering a deep bear phase, Amber Group also faced a significant adjustment period.

Amber Group had approximately $60 million frozen on the FTX platform. Although Amber claimed that this amount represented only 10% of its total trading capital and did not cause significant issues, the market still raised trust concerns about asset management platforms like Amber Group. Certain specific products faced noticeable "drawdowns" due to FTX's default.

Amber Group had to make strategic and organizational adjustments, reducing its workforce from a peak of around 1,100 employees to approximately 300, and suspending its metaverse and consumer-facing business projects.

Amber originally planned to raise an additional $100 million in its Series B+ round at a $3 billion valuation but had to shift to a Series C round due to the market collapse and internal adjustments. Michael Wu admitted in an interview with Bloomberg that the Series C valuation was below $3 billion, though he did not disclose the exact figure.

Perhaps due to the market's series of scandals and the stricter regulatory environment that followed, coupled with the impact on Amber's own business, the company's IPO plan was also delayed.

Now, with Trump's administration easing crypto regulations and the trend of convergence between traditional and crypto finance, it presents a favorable window for Amber to go public.

Through the listing, Amber Group will have access to more capital and can align with compliance trends. By adopting higher standards of transparency and regulation, the company can attract more institutional clients and also provide an exit route for early investors.

According to a press release from Amber, after going public on Nasdaq, Amber International will focus on four areas of expansion, with strengthening compliance being a key priority. Amber plans to launch tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) and institution-grade compliant investment products and expand cooperation with asset management companies, private banks, and regulated financial entities.

Over 10 More in the Queue: CeFi Leads the Crypto IPO Wave

After Trump's election, Wall Street institutions such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase began to pay attention to crypto market clients seeking IPO opportunities. ARK Invest also stated that the Trump administration might reopen the IPO window for U.S. crypto companies.

In fact, since Trump's election, several crypto companies have gone public in the United States. SPACs (Special Purpose Acquisition Companies) have also become a preferred and faster route to listing for crypto firms.

Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck completed a merger and listing on December 11, 2024. This year, Amber and Fold Holdings have also gone public in the U.S.

Several crypto leaders that have experienced multiple listing setbacks are also seizing the window of opportunity to advance their IPO plans.

According to incomplete statistics, more than 10 crypto companies are currently advancing IPO plans, with the following developments:

• Kraken: According to a Bloomberg report last week, the crypto exchange Kraken is actively preparing for an IPO in the first quarter of 2026. Previously, Kraken's IPO plan was stalled due to the Biden administration's strict regulation of the crypto industry.

• Gemini: According to Bloomberg and multiple sources on the X platform, Gemini has confidentially filed for an IPO and is working with Goldman Sachs and Citigroup to advance the process, with a possible listing in 2025. The company previously reached a $5 million settlement with the CFTC and announced that the SEC has concluded its investigation, clearing some regulatory hurdles for the IPO.

• Circle: Circle, which restarted its IPO in January last year, is still awaiting regulatory review. Circle's IPO has been quite tumultuous; its plan to go public via SPAC in 2021 was canceled due to worsening market conditions. According to Polymarket prediction market data, there is currently a 59% probability that Circle will complete its IPO in 2025.

• Bgin Blockchain: Crypto mining equipment manufacturer Bgin Blockchain filed for an IPO in February, aiming to raise $50 million.

• BitGo: According to Aggr News, BitGo is considering an IPO as early as the second half of 2025.

• Bullish Global: According to CoinGape and Bloomberg, Bullish Global (a crypto exchange supported by Peter Thiel and parent company of CoinDesk) is exploring an IPO in collaboration with Jefferies, with plans to advance it in 2025. Its previous SPAC plan in 2021 was unsuccessful.

• eToro: According to Crypto Briefing and other reports, eToro has confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO, targeting a valuation of over $5 billion. The IPO is expected to be managed by Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, and UBS, with a planned listing in New York in the second quarter of 2025.

• Ionic Digital: On October 21 last year, Ionic Digital announced the relaunch of its IPO plan. It had previously indicated in November 2024 that it expected to become a publicly traded company in the first or second quarter of 2025, though the exact date remains uncertain.

• Blockchain.com: In October last year, CoinDesk reported that the company was "interviewing investment banks" for its IPO, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, suggesting that it is still advancing its listing preparations, though the exact timeline is not set.

In addition, Bankless also mentioned Digital Currency and Consensys as potential IPO contenders this year. Crypto asset management firm Bitwise indicated that infrastructure provider Anchorage Digital, tokenization company Figure, and analytics service Chainalysis are also major candidates for upcoming listings.

From the companies that have already gone public or are planning IPOs, it is clear that the current wave of crypto IPOs is still dominated by top exchanges and CeFi asset management firms.