Bullish provides USD.AI $100M facility for GPU loans

Bullish has provided USD.AI with a $100 million stablecoin debt facility to fund loans secured by graphics processing units used in artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Bullish said in a Friday announcement that the facility will give USD.AI capital to finance operators purchasing high-performance computing equipment, extending the exchange operator’s exposure to tokenized assets and AI infrastructure.

Developed by Permian Labs, USD.AI connects stablecoin liquidity with companies seeking funds to buy GPUs. Instead of evaluating claims against a borrower’s entire business, the platform issues non-recourse loans secured by the computing hardware purchased with the financing.

Bullish Head of Tokenization Thomas Cowan said the company used USD.AI’s onchain records when assessing the facility. Bullish had already invested in the platform before agreeing to provide the new debt financing.

“Our commitment to USD.AI reflects a conviction we’ve believed since our first investment in the protocol: that credible, well-structured real-world assets belong onchain.”

Bullish facility expands USD.AI’s GPU loan capacity

Under the arrangement, USD.AI will use the $100 million facility to originate loans for middle-market AI infrastructure operators. Ownership of the financed hardware provides the collateral, while the loan does not create a claim against the operator’s other corporate assets, according to the announcement.

Such a structure separates the loan from the borrower’s main balance sheet, but repayment still depends on the income and resale value generated by the underlying computing equipment. GPUs can lose value as newer models enter the market, making loan terms, collateral checks and repayment schedules important parts of the financing process.

USD.AI has already completed large transactions involving recent Nvidia hardware. In June, the protocol announced a $98.1 million loan backed by 2,304 Nvidia B300 GPUs, while investors fully funded another $34 million facility secured by 768 Nvidia B200 units.

Combined, the two disclosed loans involved 3,072 GPUs and more than $132 million in financing. The latest Bullish facility gives the protocol another source of stablecoin liquidity as it adds loans for operators building data centers and AI computing clusters.

Permian Labs CEO David Choi said demand for computing equipment has created a distinct lending category.

“Compute is becoming a credit market in its own right,” Choi said, adding that Bullish’s facility would allow USD.AI to finance more infrastructure and develop trading markets for compute-backed debt.

According to USD.AI, its financing is settled onchain and gives capital providers exposure to loans backed by income-producing computing equipment. The company describes the funding as non-dilutive because operators do not have to surrender an ownership stake when borrowing.

sUSDai listing will create a secondary trading market

Alongside the lending facility, Bullish plans to introduce sUSDai across several trading pairs on its institutional exchange. A dedicated market-making program will provide orders for the token once trading begins, according to the companies.

USD.AI uses sUSDai as its yield-bearing token, giving holders exposure to returns generated from the protocol’s credit operations. Listing the asset would allow holders to trade the position instead of relying only on the repayment period of the underlying loans.

Bullish expects the program to improve secondary liquidity and price discovery for GPU-backed debt. The companies did not disclose the planned trading pairs, launch date or market-making budget in Friday’s announcement.

At the same time, Bullish and USD.AI are expanding a research project focused on ways to finance capital spending in the AI sector. The work will combine Bullish’s experience operating institutional markets with USD.AI’s lending structure, according to the announcement.

Tokenized exposure to computing hardware has appeared elsewhere in the crypto market. In August 2025, Injective introduced an Nvidia GPU derivatives market that allowed traders to gain exposure to rental prices for Nvidia H100 processors.

Aethir and Injective also launched a tokenized GPU marketplace in December 2024, using blockchain-based products to provide access to computing capacity. Unlike those trading and rental products, USD.AI’s model centers on secured loans issued to infrastructure operators.

Bullish deepens an existing USD.AI relationship

The $100 million facility follows Bullish Capital’s $4 million investment in USD.AI in September 2025. Cowan said onchain transparency allowed Bullish to review the protocol using the institutional underwriting standards applied elsewhere across its business.

Bullish operates spot and derivatives markets for professional investors and supplies the liquidity supporting the new facility.

In Europe, Bullish operates under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework as an authorized crypto asset service provider offering spot trading and custody. Its U.S. presence expanded after the company obtained a New York BitLicense in September 2025, when crypto.news reported that Bullish shares gained nearly 6% following the approval.

The license allowed Bullish to serve eligible customers in New York and arrived about one month after its public listing. Regulatory approval in the state added to the company’s U.S. operations, although Friday’s announcement did not specify whether sUSDai would be offered to American customers or describe any access limits.

Bullish stock rebounds after steep post-IPO decline

For U.S. investors, the transaction adds AI infrastructure lending to the businesses tied to NYSE-listed Bullish shares under the ticker BLSH. Any financial effect will depend on the facility’s terms, loan performance, and contribution to Bullish’s results, none of which the companies disclosed.

Bullish completed its New York Stock Exchange debut in August 2025 after pricing shares at $37. The offering raised about $1.03 billion, while the stock opened at $90 during its first trading session.

Earlier coverage of the Bullish public offering reported that the company entered the market at a valuation of about $5.4 billion after pricing above its original range. BlackRock-managed funds and accounts linked to ARK Investment Management had indicated interest in purchasing up to $200 million of stock.

Despite its recent recovery, BLSH remains more than 60% below its $90 opening price, according to Yahoo Finance data. The shares traded around $33 on Friday after gaining approximately 45% during the preceding month.

Other U.S.-traded crypto companies also advanced over the same period. Bitcoin treasury company Strive gained about 88%, Bitcoin miner Canaan rose roughly 55%, and USDC issuer Circle added close to 40%.