In 2026, when OpenAI and Anthropic were still in the primary market, Cerebras became one of the few AI companies to truly enter the IPO window.

Written by: Bibi News

On May 14, 2026, Cerebras Systems' IPO had not yet officially opened at a price, but the crypto derivatives platform trade.xyz had already offered a price in advance.

The contract price for Cerebras quickly jumped from the $290 range to around $380, with nearly $100 million in transactions within an hour and a cumulative total of $280 million in 24 hours, with an open interest of approximately $57.77 million.

Cerebras' IPO Cycle

In 2026, when OpenAI and Anthropic were still in the primary market, Cerebras became one of the few AI companies to truly enter the IPO window.

Cerebras' main product is the wafer-scale AI processor, seen as an important alternative direction outside of Nvidia's GPU architecture, and has received significant attention.

In September 2025, Cerebras completed its Series G financing with an issue price of $36.23, corresponding to a valuation of $8.1 billion. By the time of Series H financing in February 2026, the issue price had risen to $89.02, corresponding to a valuation of $22.95 billion.

In less than five months, the valuation nearly tripled.

The initial pricing range given by investment banks was $115 to $125. During the roadshow, institutional subscriptions exceeded 20 times, prompting an immediate increase in the range to $150 to $160.

On May 13, the final price was set at $185, raising $5.55 billion in total, making it the largest tech IPO so far in 2026.

The entire pricing process was not visible to the general public, and the information was not transparent.

Forge Global and Hiive are currently the two main pre-IPO secondary market platforms, trading actual shares of unlisted companies, but only qualified investors can participate.

Shares of Cerebras are considered scarce assets in the gray market because real equities usually come with lock-up periods, leading to poor liquidity.

Forge provides its own reference index price, while Hiive's prices are closer to actual transaction prices, but the complete historical transaction records can only be viewed by qualified investors after logging in.

The investment bank roadshow is also only open to institutions, making the entire process a closed circle.

Continuous Public Market

On May 1, 2026, trade.xyz launched the Pre-IPO perpetual contract (IPOP), with Cerebras as the first subject.

When the contract was launched, trade.xyz set an initial reference price based on Cerebras’ historical financing records, prospectus, and valuations of similar companies. Afterwards, the price was entirely driven by market buy and sell orders, continuously updated through a 30-minute index weighted moving average.

To reduce holding costs and minimize drastic early price fluctuations, the platform set the funding rate multiplier at 0.005, which is one percent of the standard contract, while also setting a price fluctuation limit.

If Cerebras completes its IPO before May 30, the contract will automatically convert to a standard CBRS stock perpetual contract, and the funding rate multiplier will return to 0.5; if it does not go public as scheduled, it will be settled at the TWAP average price for the entire duration.

Thus, anyone with a crypto wallet and USDC can participate in trading 24/7, making their own judgments on Cerebras' expected IPO price.

The various judgments originally scattered across Forge, Hiive, institutional gray markets, and investment bank roadshows were collected into one public price signal.

Different Prices in Three Markets

The pricing signals from the three platforms vary significantly.

The day before the IPO, the reference price from Forge Price was $113.50, an increase of 10.9% from the previous day, corresponding to a valuation of approximately $29.26 billion. The figure is closer to the reference index and differs by about 39% from the final issue price of $185.

The transaction price on Hiive on May 11 was $187.53, and the last record before the IPO reached about $224.90, with a historical cumulative increase of over 1185%. This has exceeded the pricing range provided by the investment banks at that time, but still has about a 22% deviation from the final issue price of $185.

The price on trade.xyz’s IPOP surged from the $290 range to around $380 the night before the listing, well above any data from the two traditional platforms.

On May 15, Cerebras officially opened on Nasdaq at an opening price of around $350, peaked at $386 during the session, and eventually closed at $311, an increase of about 68% from the issue price of $185.

Forge and Hiive trade actual equity with lock-up periods, and liquidity restrictions make the prices conservative; while IPOP is a cash-settled derivative with no delivery constraints, and its leverage amplifies market sentiment. Although the price range covers the actual opening price and the intraday peak, it is still about 22% higher than the final closing price.

Pricing Power Moves from Closed Networks to Open Networks

From the launch of IPOP on May 1 to the day before the IPO, Cerebras contracts on trade.xyz had already run for about two weeks, attracting a variety of participants worldwide and accumulating a large amount of trading data and position information.

On the eve of the final IPO pricing, the on-chain market had provided its judgment with nearly $280 million in trading volume, exceeding the trading volume of most traditional gray market platforms at the same time.

On the day of CBRS's listing, CBRS IPOP quickly became trade.xyz's fourth most active stock contract, surpassing most listed subjects within just two weeks since its launch.

The structural problem of traditional pre-IPO pricing is that the fewer participants there are, the less complete the information, and the more prices depend on the judgments from a few institutions. Both Forge and Hiive have entry barriers, and investment bank roadshows are also only open to institutions, limiting the information aggregation efficiency in a closed network.

But IPOP has completely opened up this network.

In a highly anticipated tech IPO, the IPO opening is no longer the first pricing but rather a confirmation of existing market prices.

Whether the on-chain market can provide continuous price signals of reference value during the traditional IPO pricing phase has been answered by trade.xyz with CBRS.

This is the first complete case that has gone through the entire process since IPOP was officially launched, from contract launch to IPO completion, and then to automatic conversion into a standard perpetual contract, with the entire mechanism being executed as designed.

Cerebras itself has enough market attention, attracting a large number of participants to enter the market. The leverage mechanism also amplified sentiments, making the price the night before the listing about 22% higher than the final closing price.

However, the price provided by the on-chain market covered the actual opening price and the intraday peak, accumulating nearly $280 million in trading volume over two weeks. The numbers themselves are a direct expression of market participants' valuation judgments for Cerebras.

The IPO is no longer just the result following the investment banks' inquiries but is beginning to transform into a pricing process completed jointly by on-chain public markets and traditional finance.