2020 will have publicly-traded cryptocurrency firms – Barry Silbert

• Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert has predicted that there will be publicly-traded blockchain firms in 2020.
• Cryptocurrency companies might be part of this year’s boom of SPAC IPOs, added Silbert. 
• SPACs are shell companies that raise money from IPO investors to invest in operating businesses later.

Barry Silbert, the CEO of Digital Currency Group (DCC), has predicted that there will be publicly-traded cryptocurrency companies in 2020. He said that special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) have been approaching him with merger pitches in a recent tweet.

SPACs are shell companies that raise money from IPO investors to invest in operating businesses later. While going through the usual IPO can take months, going public through a SPAC IPO is possible within just a few weeks.  

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse had made a similar prediction at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January. He claimed that there would be IPOs in the blockchain space and Ripple would lead that trend.

In the next 12 months, you’ll see IPOs in the crypto/blockchain space. We’re not going to be the first and we’re not going to be the last, but I expect us to be on the leading side… it’s a natural evolution for our company.