This Crypto Investment Firm Plans To Go Public In May

Crypto asset investment firm Pluto Digital Assets plans a stock market flotation on the Aquis Stock Exchange in London.

What Happened: Pluto Digital Assets was only incorporated in January but raised $40 million in March, and is currently in discussions with Aquis about listing its shares on the exchange, the Block has reported.

Peter Wall — a director at the company and the CEO of Argo Blockchain, the firm that led the $40 million funding round — confirmed the rumors of the upcoming listing.

The news follows what many believe to be the biggest share offering in crypto so far, after the major U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase sold its shares to the public with a direct Nasdaq listing.

Wall also added that Pluto is aiming for late May 2021 for its listing admission.

He explained that there is a lack of publicly traded cryptocurrency companies in the United Kingdom, and "Pluto is listing to address the gap between the massive growth in [decentralized finance] and the lack of equity investment capability available to UK stock exchange investors."

Argo Blockchain stands to profit greatly on an IPO given that it holds a 25% stake in Pluto, according to a March announcement.

This is not a new strategy for Wall and his colleagues from Argo, considering that he is also an advisor to non-fungible token investment firm NFT Investments — which recently raised £35 million by listing on Aquis.

Argo Blockchain co-founder Mike Edwards also founded decentralized finance investment firm Dispersion Holdings, which also announced its intention to float on the Access segment of Aquis Stock Exchange Growth Market yesterday.

The company hopes to raise £10 million — or nearly $14 — at a valuation of £25 million, which is equivalent to nearly $35 million.

A person familiar with the matter said that Pluto is different from those two firms since it was already operating for some months, which makes the checks before the listing more time-consuming, the Block reported. It has not been specified how much Pluto hopes to raise.