Crypto companies are entering public markets at a time when investors are asking harder questions about how these businesses actually make money.

A listed crypto company cannot rely only on adoption, user growth, or a strong brand. Public equity investors want to see revenue quality, margins, reserves, governance, client asset protection, and performance across weaker market cycles.

That shift is changing how the industry is judged. Exchanges, stablecoin issuers, miners, custody firms, data companies, and Bitcoin treasury businesses are all being measured against public-market expectations.

BeInCrypto spoke with Anton Efimenko, Co-Founder and Lead Expert at 8Blocks; Fernando Lillo Aranda, CMO at Zoomex; and Federico Variola, CEO of Phemex, about how IPOs and listings reshape expectations for crypto businesses.

A Listed Company Does Not Automatically Lift Its Token

Going public can give a crypto company more visibility. It can also make the business easier for traditional investors to track. But shareholders and token holders are often exposed to different economics.

Anton Efimenko, Co-Founder and Lead Expert at 8Blocks, said token holders should not assume an IPO will directly support token prices.

“Unfortunately, an IPO itself doesn’t really give anything to the crypto community. Many tokens are not tied to the issuer’s business. So even if the company goes public and reports strong annual profit, its token doesn’t have to increase in value. The token price won’t necessarily follow the stock price,” Efimenko said.

He added: “An IPO can bring visibility to the issuer, but it doesn’t guarantee profit for token holders.”

A listed share represents ownership in the company. A token may reflect access, governance, network activity, or market sentiment. Those links are often indirect.

This distinction is becoming more important as more crypto firms move toward public markets. Investors need to understand whether they are buying a company’s earnings power, a token’s utility, or broader exposure to crypto sentiment.

Institutional Access Still Depends on Risk Rules

Public listings can make crypto exposure easier for pension funds, banks, and asset managers. Some institutions cannot hold tokens directly, but they may be able to buy shares in a listed exchange, miner, stablecoin issuer, or custody company.

Efimenko said institutional access still depends on ratings and internal policy.

“Pension funds will be able to buy shares of crypto companies, but only if the rating of those shares matches the fund’s investment policy. For such large financial institutions, the asset’s rating matters a lot because they can’t afford to lose their depositors’ money,” he said.

Many institutions may still choose lower-yielding traditional assets over crypto-native returns if the risk profile is clearer.

“That’s why it’s easier for them to invest in US Treasuries at 3% annually than to stake USDT at 5.5%,” Efimenko said.

Tokenized Treasuries could create a middle ground. They may allow institutions to use digital asset systems while relying on the rating of the underlying government debt.

“But once Treasuries become tokenized assets, pension funds may be able to hold them on their balance sheets based on the rating of the underlying asset,” he said.

Exchanges and Stablecoin Issuers Have the Clearest Case

The experts were most confident about exchanges and stablecoin issuers as public-market businesses.

Fernando Lillo Aranda, CMO at Zoomex, said stablecoin companies have the strongest structural position because their revenue can become more recurring and less dependent on trading volumes.

“Stablecoin infrastructure is the strongest structural position. This model benefits from network effects, float economics, payments expansion, and increasingly becoming financial rails rather than pure crypto businesses. Revenue can become more recurring and less dependent on trading cycles,” Aranda said.

Stablecoin issuers can benefit from reserve income, payments growth, and wider institutional use. Their challenge is scrutiny around reserves, regulation, and concentration risk.

Exchanges also remain among the strongest crypto businesses when they execute well. They sit close to users, liquidity, and transaction activity.

“Exchanges offer the strongest cash generation (when executed well). Exchanges still monetize attention and liquidity better than most crypto businesses. The best ones evolve beyond trading into custody, cards, lending, staking, payments, launchpads, and brokerage layers. The challenge is cyclicality and fee compression,” Aranda said.

Federico Variola, CEO of Phemex, also placed exchanges and stablecoin issuers at the top of the public-market list.

“The strongest business models in public markets are, for sure, exchanges and possibly stablecoin issuers. Others will face certain constraints, whether because of their business model or because there is some seasonality in their revenue,” Variola said.

He added: “Exchanges and stablecoin companies tend to have a more stable baseline in terms of revenue and room for growth, especially exchanges.”

Exchanges still face pressure from market cycles, falling fees, regulation, and user trust. But compared with many crypto business models, their revenue engines are easier for public investors to understand.

The Less Visible Infrastructure Businesses May Age Better

Some of the strongest public-market crypto businesses may be less visible to retail investors.

Aranda pointed to custody, market services, analytics, data, and compliance providers as important long-term categories. These companies provide the operational layer institutions need before they allocate more capital to digital assets.

“Custody and market infrastructure offers a quiet but powerful category. Institutions entering digital assets need custody, reporting, settlement, compliance, and execution layers. This often behaves more like financial infrastructure than speculative crypto exposure,” Aranda said.

These firms may benefit from digital asset adoption without relying fully on token prices. Their revenue can come from enterprise contracts, reporting tools, surveillance systems, and compliance services.

Miners and Bitcoin Treasury Firms Face a Harsher Cycle Test

Miners and Bitcoin treasury companies can attract attention because they offer public-market exposure to Bitcoin. That can be useful for equity investors who want Bitcoin-linked upside without buying the asset directly.

The weakness is their exposure to market cycles.

Aranda said miners remain vulnerable to energy prices, hardware costs, and commodity-like economics.

“Miners. Public markets like the Bitcoin beta, but mining remains exposed to energy costs, hardware cycles, and commodity-like economics unless vertically integrated,” he said.

Bitcoin treasury companies face a different problem. They can raise capital around Bitcoin exposure, especially in bullish markets, but their operating value can become harder to defend over time.

“Bitcoin treasury companies. Very powerful for capital formation and attracting BTC exposure through equities, but harder to defend operationally. Over time they risk becoming viewed more as leveraged holding vehicles than operating businesses,” Aranda said.

Variola said treasury firms, miners, and other market-sensitive businesses are likely to face more pressure when crypto prices fall.

“I think treasury companies in particular are bound to suffer significant stress when the market turns bearish. The same can be said for miners and other firms that are more exposed to market volatility,” he said.

These companies may remain popular during strong Bitcoin cycles. Public investors, however, will keep asking whether they can create value beyond holding or producing Bitcoin.

Overall, the gist is that crypto’s public-market era will reward companies that can explain their business in financial terms. The firms that rely only on market excitement will face a harder audience.

Источник: BeInCrypto