One of the most challenging aspects of investing in a hot sector is finding value investments. With all the hype during a bull run, it can often feel as though every company is way overvalued. Although as many will know, in the small cap markets, value is probably not anywhere near as important as liquidity – without liquidity you can find yourself trapped in a declining stock, exiting can be difficult, especially on the lower runs of the stock market, where some stocks can see only a few trades per day, often with awful spreads, just to add insult to injury. It is in this very position we find Tap Global PLC #TAP having IPO’d initially on the Aquis exchange, before more recently finding its way onto AIM, the junior market of the London Stock Exchange.
For a stock that has only been listed since January 2023, it has something of a turbulent past. Anyone who follows the stock will have seen several CEOs come and go. I’m sure at one stage, investors were left confused as a new CEO was appointed, yet the old one was never officially given the boot. The newly listed company just couldn’t quite get its communication right. This then led to a free fall in the share price as loyal investors saw the value of their investment crumble, with the perceived inaction of the board. At its absolute bottom the stock hit as low as 0.7p/share having IPO’d at 4.5p only just over a year previously. Naturally the ongoing bear market at that time did not do much to add to investor confidence. Things however seem to have started to turn a corner, with The appointment of Arsen Torosian as CEO (Arsen was the founder of TAP) and crypto stock veteran Peter Wall as Chairman of the Board.
This still stands as a high-risk investment, but one that I personally believe has tremendous upside, assuming the board can pull this off. Tap is very different from the rest of the crypto based stocks listed in the UK, as we have seen in the past month or so, much of the hype has been surrounding Bitcoin Treasury companies, these however appear to be one trick ponies and with the current price to NAV situation, one could be argue are starting to look a lot like Ponzi schemes. Tap is different, it does not just hold crypto tokens on its balance sheet, its a fully fledged Fintech and a profitable one by all accounts too. We are yet to see the year end results, but given the half year report, we can assume that they are positive.
So, what is Tap Global PLC? Tap intends to act as a bridge between the traditional finance world and the newly evolving cryptosphere that’s developing before our eyes. Part bank, part crypto exchange, Tap allows users to buy, transfer and spend their crypto tokens. The app is simple to use and appears to be targeted toward those new to investing in cryptocurrency tokens. Now the app is by no means a finished product and it has a long way to go in order to catch up with its competitors – that said it comes in at a very reasonable price tag. At close of trading today, the stock was priced at around 2p/share giving the company a market cap of approximately £13.5m.
So, where does it stand in comparison to its peers?
Reading through the recent admissions document Tap has listed the following companies as is competitors:
Revolut, Coinbase, Crypto.com, OKX, Bybit, Nexo, eToro & Uphold So lets take a look at the valuations of the above companies:
Revolut: The latest data for Revolut valued the company at $46b in August 2024
Coinbase: As of the close of business 3/7/25, Coinbase was valued at $90.62b
Crypto.com: While there is no official figure to work from here, reports indicate that Crypto.com generated a net profit of approximately $300m in 2024. Applying a multiplier of 20 would yield a figure of around $6b, which I think most would consider a conservative valuation, given the sector.
OKX: Again, no official information to work from here, although it is known that OKX has a daily trading volume of over $2b, which is similar to that of Coinbase, so given the little information we have to go on, maybe $90b?
Bybit: Another private company, so again not the easiest information on, however, industry estimates put a valuation of around $40b on the Dubai-based company.
Nexo: Recent estimates have valued NEXO at approximately $1.2b
eToro: eToro listed on the NASDAQ exchange in the USA this year, raising $620m and initially listed with a market capitalisation (MCap) of $4.2b, which has increased to around $5.31 b in recent weeks.
Uphold: Currently considering its options for listing in the US, it is currently believed that the company is worth around $1.5b
Tap as a company has many hurdles to jump over to catch up to its competition. But with the proper funding, it is not impossible for this company to scale up and fast, the main problem as I perceive is just that funding. Now should the company play its cards right, funding could be forthcoming, it has long been rumoured that during its previous funding round, the institutional investors, that took place in the fundraise insisted Tap up listed to AIM, before any further funding would be available. Whether this is true, remains to be seen?
To avoid getting too excited, let’s examine Tap’s nearest competitor, Nexo. Nexo is estimated to be valued at $1.2b, and revenues are estimated at $100m, so how does this compare to Tap? 2024 revenues were reported at £2.65m, up 31.2% on the previous year, more recently H1 2025 revenue was reported at £1.8m, so if we make an assumption that H2 was similar, 2025 reported revenue can be estimated at £3.6m giving growth of 26.4% over the year previous. Given the current exchange rate, Nexo’s revenue is £73.25m against `Tap’s £3.6 making Nexo’s revenue 20x bigger than that of Tap Global PLC. Nexo’s valuation converted to GBP sits at £879.05m giving us a comparative valuation of Tap at £43.95m is the market missing something here?
Now I know you can’t compare apples to pears, but looking across the board at other companies in a similar market, Tap Global does indeed appear to be undervalued. However, some will argue not in the traditional sense. But this is a growth company in a hot sector, so you can not really apply traditional valuations. The next year or so will be make or break time for Tap Global, given they are already growing fast, should funding be made available we could see a period of exponential growth for the aspiring upstart. I personally think a re-rate could be just around the corner and when you consider the board have given themselves loft share price targets (15,25 & 50p), we can only assume they intend to let the wider world know exactly who Tap are.
Disclaimer: This post is my opinion and my opinion only and is not intended as investment advice; you should always do your own research. I am personally invested in Tap Global PLC and therefore my opinion should be considered biased. All company valuations are estimated on the best available information to hand and should not be considered to be guaranteed.
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