SPACs: The Next Generation

Just when most of us had mentally filed SPACs alongside pandemic-era sourdough starters and Zoom happy hours, special purpose acquisition companies—the blank-check vehicles that once raised billions with celebrity endorsements and minimal oversight—are back.

So far in 2025, there have been 63 initial public offerings of SPACs—compared to just 15 at the same point last year. The resurgence hit full stride in April, with 16 new SPAC IPO filings and 11 deals priced. Not to mention nine announcements of so-called de-SPAC transactions and a few completed mergers, including one with the popular trading platform Webull.

SPAC-tivists—if such people exist—must feel vindicated after so many market analysts left the strategy for dead. In the 2020-2021 frenzy during the Covid-19 pandemic, SPACs were the darlings of the investment market, with celebrities such as basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal and rap mogul Jay-Z attaching themselves to the shell companies. More than 600 SPAC offerings raised a total of $163 billion in 2021 alone, accounting for more than half of all IPO activity in the financial markets.

The high-flying sector had a rough landing, however, as about half the SPACs that emerged during the period failed to consummate deals with actual businesses. When the Securities and Exchange Commission issued new rules requiring greater transparency on matters such as sponsor compensation and conflicts of interest, the regulators had seemingly finished off SPACs for good.

To what do we owe the re-emergence of SPACs? One compelling theory holds that the prior craze gave birth to a glut of zombie companies still searching for acquisitions. Now that oversaturation in the market has thinned out, big investors have earmarked new SPAC capital to put to work with redemption protections in place and more rational pricing.

Additionally, the cryptocurrency industry could be playing a role in the SPAC renaissance. Some of the newest entries into the SPAC marketplace are specifically seeking blockchain companies. Others have noted they’re open to the possibility of going the crypto route. As an example, Cantor Fitzgerald’s Cantor Equity Partners SPAC merged in April with Twenty One Capital Inc., forming a new company intended to “offer investors a singular vehicle for Bitcoin exposure, pro-Bitcoin advocacy, and Bitcoin-focused content and media with plans to explore future expansion into Bitcoin-native financial products,” according to a release from Cantor Fitzgerald.

Given recent expressions of support for crypto by several high-profile political figures, including President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers, it is not unexpected that several politically connected figures have taken interest in the current SPAC activity. Notable examples include:

• A media-focused SPAC launched by President Trump following his first term in the White House.
• Brandon Lutnick, the son of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, is chairman and chief executive of Cantor Equity Partners.
• After helping get Trump’s SPAC off the ground, former Republican congressman Devin Nunes has expressed interest in crypto-related investments for his latest SPAC.

The involvement of sponsors like Cantor Fitzgerald and figures such as Nunes underscore how experienced SPAC players are driving the latest wave of offerings. Serial sponsors accounted for four-fifths of the SPAC IPOs in the first quarter of 2025 and $2.7 billion of the $3.1 billion in proceeds raised. We’ll find out if these SPAC pioneers learned the right lessons to keep the new batch of companies from flaming out.