From ambitious start to ecosystem powerhouse
On October 15th, 2025, Freedom Holding’s (FRHC) listing on the NASDAQ made history as the first financial firm from the CIS region to list on a major U.S. exchange. What began as a compact, specialized financial group has now transformed into a multi-industry digital ecosystem. Guided by the vision and long-term strategy of its Founder and CEO, Timur Turlov, Freedom Holding Corp. has delivered a significant increase in market value, as well as improved financial and business indicators, attracting leading global institutional investors, including BlackRock and Vanguard.
In autumn 2019, just before its NASDAQ listing, Freedom Holding was a compact, specialized financial group with a presence in a few countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. At that time, the services offered included retail securities brokerage, investment counseling, securities trading, market making, corporate investment banking, and underwriting. These were provided through several brokerage firms and banks, the Freedom24 online trading portal for retail clients, and the advanced TraderNet platform for qualified investors, all operating under the U.S.-incorporated Freedom Holding Corp.
A long road to NASDAQ
Bringing all the group’s businesses legally under the umbrella of one holding company was a key step on its way to NASDAQ, allowing Freedom Holding Corp. (FRHC) to prepare consistent financial statements, ensure transparency of revenues, and thus meet the strict standards for a public listing. “It’s really very important to be transparent,” said Timur Turlov, CEO and Founder of Freedom Holding, when talking about the listing on one of the world’s top trading platforms.
According to Timur Turlov, it took five long years to get ready for NASDAQ: “The holding company was restructured, a single business management system was introduced for all the countries where we operate, and reporting was unified in every country. You can’t get a listing on a major Western exchange without solving complex procedural tasks first,” he explained.
In July 2018, Freedom Holding Corp. started trading on the OTCQX® Best Market, the top tier of U.S. over-the-counter markets. Unlike NASDAQ — a fully regulated U.S. stock exchange with strict listing, reporting, and governance requirements — OTCQX serves as an intermediate step for international companies preparing to meet the more rigorous requirements of major U.S. exchanges, allowing international investors to participate in their growth before they are uplisted.
In January 2019, Freedom Holding Corp. was ranked fifth on the OTCQX Best 50 list of companies with the best performance in 2018. On October 15, 2019, its shares began trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker FRHC. Freedom became the first financial firm from the CIS region to list on a major U.S. exchange.
Freedom shares: Price of success
Freedom Holding Corp. (FRHC) shares debuted on the NASDAQ at just over $14 per share, with the company’s market capitalization reaching about $3.76 billion at the time. Six years later, as of October 14, 2025, FRHC closed at $171.98 per share, with a market capitalization of approximately $10.39 billion. During 2025, the stock reached an intraday high of $194.01 in August, corresponding to a market capitalization of roughly $11.76 billion.
This represents more than a tenfold increase in market value since the company’s NASDAQ debut. For comparison, over the same period, the Russell 2000 index (small-cap U.S.) delivered an annualized return of just over 9% — far more modest than Freedom’s.
Key results: Six-year trajectory
Beyond stock price, Freedom demonstrated explosive growth in operations and scale:
- Revenue and net income demonstrated dramatic growth, with revenue rising from $74.3 million to $2.05 billion and net income increasing from $7.1 million to $84.5 million, highlighting a sustained and rapid expansion.
- Total assets increased from modest financial firm levels to nearly $9.9 billion.
- Much broader client base and geographical reach. Freedom now serves over 7 million clients across 22 countries, compared with 115,000 client accounts in 7 countries six years ago.
- The workforce rose over a six-year period by more than seven times from 1,141 employees in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, to 8,764 by March 2025.
How is that possible? The answer is…
Comprehensive digital ecosystem
Over the six years since its initial listing on NASDAQ, Freedom Holding has expanded through a series of consecutive acquisitions in various industries, far beyond the original segments to many more operational areas. Now covering, in addition to brokerage and banking, the insurance, payments, consumer, telecom, and media sectors, it has grown into a comprehensive ecosystem. Its multiple services are united under Freedom’s mobile SuperApp, leveraging advanced technologies such as big data science and artificial intelligence.
This transition signals not just scale, but maturity in governance, reporting infrastructure, and investor interest. At the time of its U.S. listing, Freedom Holding was categorized under SEC rules as a Smaller Reporting Company. Over six years, Freedom graduated into a Large Accelerated Filer — a designation reserved for larger, more established public companies, subject to the interest of bigger and more conservative investors.
Timur Turlov is sure: “All the competition is not between standalone companies. It’s not between offline and online. It’s just between ecosystems.” And his vision is shared by the investors.
In good company
According to NASDAQ, 134 institutional investors currently hold shares in Freedom. These include renowned organizations such as State Street Corp., Geode Capital Management LLC, Millennium Management LLC, Morgan Stanley, Tudor Investment Corp., Vanguard Group Inc., Northern Trust Corp., UBS AM, and others.
In July, FRHC stock joined the First Trust Financial AlphaDEX Fund — alongside Berkshire Hathaway, managed by Warren Buffett, as well as major Wall Street banks Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, trading platform Robinhood, crypto exchange Coinbase, and other leading firms. In late August 2025, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, increased its stake in Freedom Holding Corp. by 579 percent, becoming its largest institutional investor.
“The presence of partners such as BlackRock confirms the resilience of our business and the strategic potential of Freedom Holding Corp. in international markets,” commented Timur Turlov at the time. On the eve of the 6th NASDAQ listing anniversary, the CEO of Freedom wrote on LinkedIn: “All these developments show that we’re growing, becoming stronger and more valuable — which means our principles and our approach are working.”
