In the evolutionary path of decentralized finance (DeFi), the boundaries of risk are being redefined: on one end, derivative protocols attempt to move the valuation games of prospective IPO companies on-chain through complex mechanism designs; on the other end, the ecosystem is engaging in unprecedented "elephant turns" through cross-protocol governance collaboration after facing significant security shocks. According to AiCoin data and multiple media reports, on or around May 1, 2026, the decentralized trading platform TradeXYZ officially added related content about the Pre-IPO Perpetuals market to its official documentation. This product aims to establish a cash-settled perpetual derivative field surrounding the public listing expectations of prospective IPO companies, providing continuous on-chain gaming space for price discovery before the IPO.

At the same time, in response to the previously impaired rsETH assets, a rescue operation led by Aave, named DeFi United, is entering a critical fund replenishment phase. Kelp has confirmed a one-time donation of 2,000 ETH from its treasury to DeFi United, aiming to restore the nominal exchange rate of rsETH and promote the complete recovery of the system. Currently, the recovery fund has gathered forces from multiple parties including Mantle, Consensys, ether.fi, and Lido, raising funds that have surpassed 311 million dollars. It is noteworthy that Arbitrum DAO has initiated a proposal vote in early May regarding the release of approximately 30,700 previously frozen ETH to this fund; if the vote passes on May 7, Arbitrum will become the largest contributor to this rescue operation. From TradeXYZ's attempts at pricing front-end risks to DeFi United's post-event remediation of existing risks, DeFi protocols are demonstrating complex resilience from price discovery to governance self-healing in a highly pressured financial environment.

Betting before the IPO: What Pre-IPO Perpetuals look like

The recently updated Pre-IPO Perpetuals market in TradeXYZ's official documentation essentially constitutes a cash-settled perpetual derivative designed around the public listing expectations of prospective IPO companies. According to relevant information, the core function of this product is to provide a tool for "pre-IPO price discovery" in the market. Before the target company officially enters secondary market trading, traders can use this contract to value the issuer's expected public equity through speculative games. This design introduces the valuation pricing process, which originally belongs to the primary market or specific over-the-counter (OTC) trades, into a decentralized derivative protocol equipped with a continuous trading mechanism, thereby constructing a real-time volatility curve for the valuation of unlisted companies on-chain.

In terms of legal and rights structure, TradeXYZ has clearly defined and isolated risks for this product. The official emphasizes that Pre-IPO perpetual contracts are neither traditional stocks nor IPO allocation shares and do not belong to tokenized equity or any form of securities rights. This means that holding users only participate in the profit and loss allocation of price fluctuations at the protocol level, without enjoying ownership rights, voting rights, or dividend rights of the target company, nor can they exercise any form of asset claim against the issuer. This "pure cash settlement" logic aims to strictly limit the product attributes within the category of synthetic asset derivatives, completely distancing its operational mechanism from the legal framework of traditional equity, existing solely as a pure risk hedging or speculative tool.

From a pricing logic perspective, since the target company is not yet listed, this product does not depend on external spot prices or traditional index oracles; instead, it forms a reference price entirely through the trading behavior of market participants via an internal pricing mechanism similar to Hyperps. This endogenous price discovery mechanism solves the problem of a lack of public liquidity benchmarks during the Pre-IPO stage. According to TradeXYZ's design protocol, if the target company goes public successfully and has sufficient external data support, the market is expected to transition to standard external pricing perpetual contracts; however, if there are delays, failures, or significant changes in circumstances, the protocol will activate predefined Outside Launch Date (latest release date) and Settlement Period, enforcing liquidation through mechanisms like TWAP (time-weighted average price) to define the boundaries for capital exit under extreme uncertainty.

Internal pricing without oracles, where does the risk come from?

The most notable feature of TradeXYZ's Pre-IPO perpetual contracts in their mechanism design is the "endogeneity" of pricing logic. According to its official documentation, the product does not rely on common external spot or index oracles but instead adopts an internal pricing mechanism similar to Hyperps, forming reference prices entirely through the trading behavior of market participants. Before the formal IPO of the target company, this design effectively hands over pricing power to the market's speculative efforts on "listing expectations" due to the lack of public secondary market price anchor points. While this model offers investors prospective price discovery tools, it also means that price fluctuations are entirely dictated by internal liquidity and sentiment within the protocol, rather than actual asset valuation support.

Regarding the evolution of the product lifecycle, TradeXYZ has preset a clear path for transformation. It is understood that once the target company goes public, provided there is sufficient external market data, the relevant Pre-IPO market is expected to transition to a standard external pricing perpetual contract, at which point the pricing anchor will transition from "pure expectation" to "actual listing price." However, DeFi protocols must consider variables in the IPO process. Should any delays, failures, or significant fundamental changes occur, the protocol will trigger a defensive settlement mechanism: entering a Settlement Period through the predefined Outside Launch Date and utilizing TWAP for final settlement. The application of TWAP is intended to mitigate the impact of price manipulation on settlement outcomes by smoothing price fluctuations over specific time windows, ensuring that the exit logic is relatively fair under extreme uncertainty.

This "internal pricing + predefined settlement" closed loop, while achieving decentralized pricing in logic, still carries a high level of pervasive risk. First is the "self-referential" risk of pricing; in the absence of external oracle constraints, the internal market is prone to irrational departures caused by long and short speculative battles, resulting in emotion-driven price bubbles. Secondly, information asymmetry regarding the IPO progress of the prospective company may lead to groups with informational advantages to systematically harvest ordinary traders. Although, according to AICoin data and public materials, there have been no specific on-chain indicators released for transaction volume, position size, or funding rates in the market yet, from a regulatory perspective, this type of pure cash-settled derivative, detached from physical asset support, is very likely to trigger severe volatility or even liquidation risks of holding positions during extreme settlement situations or upon the collapse of listing expectations.

Kelp donates 2,000 ETH, rsETH recovery fund activated

While exploring high-risk boundaries in the derivatives market, the DeFi ecosystem is also undergoing systematic repair for already occurred risk events. According to AICoin monitoring, Kelp officially confirmed on May 1 its fulfillment of the donation commitment to the rsETH recovery fund, disbursing a one-time donation of 2,000 ETH to the rescue organization DeFi United from its treasury. The core goal of this donation is to restore the nominal exchange rate of rsETH and promote the full recovery of the impaired system. Kelp emphasizes that the entire recovery plan will unfold from two dimensions: technical component repair and asset side "gap filling," specifically including injecting funds into cross-chain lockbox, restoring oracle functionality, and clearing the affected market's bad debt deficit.

As the core force behind this rescue operation, DeFi United is a joint entity led by Aave, aimed at restoring rsETH's collateral support by aggregating industry resources. Currently, this fund is showing strong ecological appeal, attracting participation from several top protocols and infrastructure providers including Mantle, Consensys, Arbitrum, ether.fi, Lido Finance, LayerZero, and Compound. According to public facts, DeFi United has raised over 311 million dollars in ETH and stablecoins so far. Kelp expresses gratitude for the support from the aforementioned partners and promises to continue disclosing specific progress on the recovery of rsETH to the community; this transparent information disclosure mechanism is seen as key to rebuilding market confidence and providing data support for the orderly exit of impaired assets and reactivation of protocols.

Arbitrum voting to release over 30,000 frozen ETH?

According to multiple media reports, Arbitrum's governance is facing a critical decision. Previously, the Arbitrum Security Council took emergency intervention measures to freeze approximately 30,700 ETH transferred to an Arbitrum One address by Kelp DAO attackers, valued at around 71.1 million dollars based on the price at the time of freezing. Currently, Arbitrum DAO has officially opened a proposal vote regarding the "release of the frozen assets to the DeFi United recovery fund." This vote initiated in early May will continue until May 7 and serves as a typical case of deep participation from L2 governance mechanisms in cross-protocol risk relief.

The execution of this proposal directly affects the collateral support levels of rsETH and the overall recovery progress. According to related facts, the DeFi United recovery fund, led by Aave, has currently raised over 311 million dollars in ETH and other anchored assets. If this proposal passes, Arbitrum will surpass participants such as Mantle, Consensys, ether.fi, and Lido Finance, becoming the largest single contributor to this recovery fund. This not only significantly amplifies the size of the fund but also helps expedite the restoration of the nominal exchange rate of rsETH and clear the deficits in the affected market.

From a governance perspective, this event reflects a combination model of "technical protection + governance decision-making." During the urgent phase of the attack, the Security Council achieved the physical freezing of assets through administrative authority; in the subsequent asset disposal phase, the ultimate decision-making power returned to community governance through DAO voting. This model provides institutional guarantees for risk hedging and liquidity repair among DeFi protocols while ensuring fund security. As the deadline for the May 7 vote approaches, the flow of these 30,700 ETH will become a core indicator for observing the effectiveness of mitigating rsETH risk.

From ICO aftereffects to IPO expectations: Where to look next in DeFi

From TradeXYZ's attempt to introduce "expected equity" of prospective IPO companies into the on-chain derivatives market to DeFi United's collaboration with multiple forces to rescue rsETH, DeFi protocols are demonstrating dual evolution logic: on one hand, continuous expansion of asset boundaries, moving the most attractive pricing power of traditional finance onto the chain through Pre-IPO perpetual contracts; on the other hand, the increasingly mature risk governance mechanism, as reflected in the recovery process of rsETH and the mobilization of Arbitrum DAO for votes, signifies that the ecosystem has the ability to shift from single-protocol self-rescue to multi-party coordinated governance in the face of sudden risks. According to the data, DeFi United has raised over 311 million dollars, while the ongoing vote regarding the release of 30,700 ETH in Arbitrum will directly determine whether it can completely restore rsETH's collateral support as the largest contributor; this process will undoubtedly trigger in-depth discussions on governance authority, the role of the Security Council, and the efficiency of deficit clearing.

However, the implementation of new mechanisms will still require extreme stress testing from the market. For the Pre-IPO perpetual contract, its core challenge lies in whether the internal pricing mechanism, detached from external oracles, is robust, especially in extreme scenarios of delays or failures of the target company’s IPO, whether the Outside Launch Date and TWAP settlement mechanism can accurately reflect risk value and smoothly transition to standard perpetual contracts. Currently, the market still lacks specific quantitative indicators regarding position structures and funding rates in the Pre-IPO market, and observations regarding rsETH are also limited to the rhythm of collateral repairs after actual funds are allocated. In the future, introducing more detailed on-chain participation and position distribution data will help assess whether these innovations have indeed enhanced the efficiency of risk pricing or layered higher levels of credit risk over existing leverage. Ultimately, the next step for DeFi lies not only in the richness of asset types but also in its ability to construct a more resilient risk disposal and pricing paradigm within the boundaries of transparency.

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