I was a little surprised to read in this recent NYT DealBook newsletter that of the 59 companies that went public in the U.S. last quarter, 41 of them were SPACs – according to data from S&P Global. I blogged last month that the SPAC/de-SPAC route has been useful for digital asset treasury companies, but these stats show there may be room in the tent for other types of companies as well. This Dealmaker newsletter from The Information (sign-up required) points to cloud providers and defense tech firms as potential de-SPAC candidates.

Meanwhile, this SPAC Insider article says that part of the reason for the SPAC resurgence is the “SPAC-truism” that they tend to thrive when the general IPO market is also improving. Additionally, it attributes this year’s first-half stats to the view that SPACs offer an attractive middle-of-the-road approach for small and mid-cap companies. Here’s more detail:

While SPACs have enjoyed two strong quarters of IPO issuance, Traditional IPOs have lagged that momentum. However, not for long. May and June saw eToro, Circle, and Chime IPO use the traditional route to great success. Interestingly, two of those deals, eToro and Circle, were previously SPAC combination companies. However, the previous administration severely curtailed any crypto-related deals leading to both of these combinations becoming terminated SPACs.

Nonetheless, going the traditional IPO route was the shot in the arm the IPO market needed. As a result, the window is opening only for large, well established companies. On the other hand, the Traditional IPO has also become the provenance of micro and nano-cap companies, which continue to see strong numbers opt for this route as well. For the small and mid-cap companies sandwiched in between these two IPO sizes, perhaps the SPAC route provides a viable option.

However, it should be noted that tariff announcements starting in April significantly curtailed all traditional IPO activity. As a result, SPACs are currently accounting for a larger share of the overall IPO market than we’ve seen in recent quarters. In fact, in Q1-2025, SPACs accounted for 26% of all IPOs, whether that was via Traditional or SPAC route. As of the end of Q2-2025, that percentage is now 39%. However, it is anticipated there should be increased traditional IPO activity in Q3 and the percentage comprised by SPACs should come down to a more normalized level.

It seems like every day there is either a boom or bust predicted for IPOs, so we will stay tuned on how this all shakes out. While I’m not advocating for one path or another here, part of any securities lawyer’s “IPO readiness toolkit” should be understanding the different options and how they might be a fit for different clients and different market conditions. Meredith had shared potential benefits of SPACs a few months ago. And we’ve shared various thoughts over the past year about being ready to hit the ground running!

– Liz Dunshee