Can't wait for IPO! Retail investors flock overnight to SpaceX "pre-IPO perpetual contracts"

Before SpaceX officially goes public, an offshore derivatives market built on a crypto blockchain has already opened up a “jump-the-line betting” opportunity for retail investors worldwide—completely bypassing Wall Street.

Perpetual contract exchange Trade.xyz launched a pre-IPO SpaceX perpetual contract on the Hyperliquid blockchain on May 17, allowing users to leverage speculation on the company's stock price trajectory before its official IPO.

According to The Wall Street Journal, SpaceX is scheduled to complete its IPO on June 12, seeking to raise $80 billion with an expected initial valuation of around $2 trillion. The contract saw a 24-hour trading volume of $33 million and $21.8 million in open interest on its very first day.

The launch of this product reflects the strong appetite among retail investors for high-profile private company equity, while also highlighting the rapid rise of decentralized offshore markets outside the bounds of traditional IPO mechanisms. Hyperliquid's native token, HYPE, saw a notable price surge following the SpaceX contract debut, and the ETF tracking HYPE has accumulated gains of 18.5% this week.

First Day Soars, Valuation Briefly Hits $2.4 Trillion

The SpaceX perpetual contract opened at a reference price of $150, soared to $216 within hours, then consolidated around $202. Based on Trade.xyz’s share number benchmark, this price corresponds to a SpaceX valuation of around $2.4 trillion, exceeding the previously cited $2 trillion estimate.

Data from the Hyperliquid platform shows open interest for the contract reached $21.8 million on the first trading day. Since then, the reference price has largely remained sideways, quoting around $203 at the time of publication.

Stephen Coltman, Head of Macro at 21Shares, told MarketWatch that the Hyperliquid ecosystem “has become the core venue for price discovery of assets inaccessible by other routes.” He also noted that even institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals find it difficult to obtain pre-IPO allocations of SpaceX shares, while this kind of derivative contract provides participation channels open to everyone.

Perpetual Contracts: Sidestepping Legal Risks of Tokenized Equity

Previously, the crypto market has encountered failed attempts at providing private company investment access. Earlier this month, another crypto exchange, PreStocks, issued tokens on the Solana blockchain linked to OpenAI and Anthropic equity. Soon after, OpenAI and Anthropic both issued statements disclaiming any recognition of equity transferred to third parties via special purpose vehicles (SPVs), causing a plunge in the token prices. PreStocks did not respond to MarketWatch’s request for comment.

Trade.xyz chose a different technological path. Its perpetual contracts are not pegged to any real equity, allowing traders only to take long or short positions on price direction and to use leverage for amplified gains or losses. The platform maintains reasonable contract pricing via a reference price mechanism, and all orders are processed through Hyperliquid’s fully decentralized order book and clearing engine.

Bitwise research analyst Ishmael Asad characterized such products as “pure speculation machines,” but also acknowledged that they create “massive buzz” in the market’s spotlight.

Cerebras Precedent: Pre-IPO Contracts Once Accurately Predicted Post-IPO Moves

SpaceX is not Trade.xyz’s first foray into pre-IPO perpetual contracts. Earlier this month, the platform quietly launched a similar contract linked to chipmaker Cerebras Systems.

Citrini Research founder James Van Geelen told MarketWatch that he built a long position in the Cerebras pre-IPO contract when its reference price was around $190, and the contract price surged to nearly $400 in the hours before Cerebras’ official IPO on May 14. “I believe this is a new price discovery mechanism, and it isn’t limited to the crypto field,” Van Geelen said in a WhatsApp message.

Stephen Coltman also pointed out that the price trend of Cerebras pre-IPO contracts accurately signaled the large stock price surge following the company’s public listing. On Reddit, some retail investors complained about missing out on allocations of the popular Cerebras IPO.

Despite soaring interest, this segment still faces clear regulatory constraints and a ceiling on scale. For regulatory reasons, Hyperliquid and Trade.xyz currently expressly prohibit U.S.-based investors from participating. However, reports indicate that some U.S. users have bypassed these geo-blocks by using VPNs. Hyperliquid is registered in the Cayman Islands, and according to media reports, its staff are mainly stationed in Singapore.

In absolute terms, the perpetual contract market is still tiny compared with the daily trading volume of the U.S. stock market. Data from Loris Tools shows that among decentralized crypto exchanges focusing on real world assets, Trade.xyz ranks first with about $2.3 billion in open interest, but this number is still orders of magnitude smaller than the size of traditional markets.