CoinW Research Institute

Abstract

Pre-IPO contract trading is becoming a new gateway for the Crypto market to connect high-growth assets in the real world. With unlisted star companies such as OpenAI, SpaceX, and Anthropic entering the contract trading scene, users no longer have to wait until a company's IPO to participate in the secondary market; instead, they can express their valuation judgments of long-term tracks like AI and commercial aerospace in advance through contractual means. Such products are not equivalent to real equity but are price exposures formed around the future value of unlisted companies. Their rise reflects that the Crypto trading market is expanding from on-chain native assets to price discovery of global tech companies, industry trends, and future IPO expectations.

1. Unlisted Star Companies Are Becoming New Trading Targets

In the past, world-class unlisted companies like OpenAI, SpaceX, and Anthropic mostly existed within the realms of primary market financing, valuation rumors, and future IPO expectations. They represent long-term growth directions such as AI big models, commercial aerospace, and future technology infrastructure, yet ordinary users have long found it difficult to participate directly. Recently, CoinW launched Pre-IPO-related contract trading in the contract TradFi sector, covering unlisted companies related to SpaceX (SPCXUSDT), OpenAI (OPENAIUSDT), and Anthropic (ANTHROPICUSDT). The star companies' valuation expectations, which originally belonged mainly to the private market and institutional investment context, are now entering the Crypto trading market in the form of contracts. This is not just the addition of a few trading pairs but an expansion of asset boundaries. CoinW is connecting the familiar contract trading mechanism with the narrative of the most watched unlisted tech companies globally, allowing the market to express early and continuous pricing around these companies' future valuations, financing progress, business growth, and IPO expectations.

2. Why is Pre-IPO Becoming a New Trading Hotspot?

The appeal of Pre-IPO arises from the long-standing participation barriers in the traditional primary market. Quality companies typically complete multiple rounds of funding before their formal IPO, with their core shares often held by VCs, PEs, high-net-worth investors, strategic investors, and employee ownership systems. Ordinary investors, even if they have a long-term positive outlook on these companies, often have to wait until after the listing to buy in at a more adequately priced level in the secondary market. However, market demand does not disappear because of existing barriers. Especially in high-growth tracks like AI, commercial aerospace, and advanced manufacturing, leading unlisted companies already garner strong global attention before their IPOs. Users are concerned about the progress of OpenAI's models, Anthropic's commercialization capabilities, and SpaceX's rocket launches, Starlink business growth, and future listing expectations. In other words, while companies have not yet gone public, market value judgments about them have already begun to form. The Crypto market inherently features characteristics such as 24/7 trading, USDT settlement, long and short mechanisms, and high trading efficiency, which provide new ways to express Pre-IPO expectations. Users no longer need to wait for IPO news but can participate in price discovery of related assets through the contract market. Therefore, Pre-IPO is not just a new product concept but represents a reorganization of the Crypto market's approach to opportunities in the traditional primary market.

3. CoinW's Entry Point: Using Contract Mechanisms to Capture Unlisted Company Valuation Expectations

CoinW's decision to launch Pre-IPO related products in the contract TradFi sector reflects its judgment on market trends. TradFi is not merely a simple transfer of traditional financial assets but a transformation of assets in the real world that possess high attention, high growth expectations, and strong narrative capabilities into product forms that Crypto users can understand and trade. Mechanically, CoinW's Pre-IPO contracts are closer to USDT-denominated contract trading that revolves around valuation expectations of unlisted companies. Users do not need to hold real equity in target companies or enter complex private equity processes; instead, they can express their judgments on the future valuation changes of related companies through margin, leverage, and long-and-short trading mechanisms. If they are bullish on SpaceX, OpenAI, or Anthropic's long-term growth, they can establish long positions; conversely, if they think market expectations are overheated, they can participate in price games through short positions.

The core value of such contracts lies in converting valuation judgments originally scattered across financing news, secondary market equity quotes, market rumors, and IPO expectations into continuously tradable market prices. Contract prices will be influenced by multiple factors, including the underlying company's financing progress, business growth, industry prosperity, IPO expectations, market sentiment, liquidity depth, and macro risk preferences. They are not traditional stock prices or official company valuations but real-time expressions of market expectations formed around the future value of unlisted companies. For users, the most significant change brought about by this mechanism is the familiarity of participation. Compared to the complex subscription processes, higher capital thresholds, and long-term exit uncertainties involved in traditional Pre-IPO investments, CoinW has transformed this into a standardized trading experience in the contract market. Users can participate using USDT, adjust positions based on market changes, and express differing directional views through long and short mechanisms. For those already familiar with Crypto contract trading, this lowers the barriers to understanding and participation, transforming Pre-IPO from a primary market opportunity for a few into a more open market trading scene.

4. Trading Not Stocks, but Future Value Price Discovery

It is important to clarify that Pre-IPO contracts are not equivalent to holding real equity in OpenAI, SpaceX, or Anthropic. Users are not trading company stocks and do not enjoy shareholder status, voting rights, dividend rights, or corporate governance rights. Essentially, they represent contractual price exposures formed around market expectations of unlisted companies. The value of Pre-IPO contracts does not lie in allowing users to become direct shareholders but in providing a market for trading and price discovery based on future valuations. Users optimistic about long-term tracks like AI and commercial aerospace can express their judgments on company growth in advance. Conversely, users who believe market expectations are overheated can also engage in reverse trading through the contract mechanism. This allows the valuation expectations of unlisted companies to be presented in a more continuous, flexible, and market-oriented manner for the first time. In the past, the valuations of private companies were primarily determined by financing rounds, secondary equity transactions, and institutional quotes; now, the Crypto contract market offers a new liquidity scenario for these expectations. Prices are no longer just internal judgments among a few institutions; they also become the result of competition from a broader range of market participants.

5. What Makes CoinW's Path Different?

Currently, Pre-IPO has become a new direction of common interest among several exchanges and trading platforms, but the approach of different platforms is not the same.

Binance's path leans more towards "super entrance + multi-product distribution." On one hand, Binance Web3 Wallet has begun to present some Pre-IPO related on-chain assets, enabling users to access popular unlisted companies like SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic through wallet entrances; on the other hand, Binance has also started exploring perpetual products related to Pre-IPO, such as SpaceX. Its advantages lie in user scale, brand influence, and distribution capabilities, but the product structure may simultaneously involve wallet entrances, third-party asset issuers, and contract trading scenarios, requiring users to understand the rights differences between different products.

OKX's path leans more towards a "regulated Pre-IPO perpetual contract." OKX has launched USDT-denominated Pre-IPO pre-market perpetual futures related to SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic, clearly emphasizing in the product design that users are trading valuation changes rather than equity in companies, and has established similar mechanisms like estimating equity, rebase adjustments, and converting to standard stock perpetual contracts after future IPOs. OKX's advantage lies in its clearer expression of rules, placing greater emphasis on the product connection from Pre-IPO to post-listing contracts.

Bitget's approach leans more towards "subscription-type Pre-IPO products + secondary market trading." Its IPO Prime features products such as preSPAX and preOPAI, collaborating with compliant issuers like Republic to offer users tokenized economic rights linked to the future economic performance of companies like SpaceX and OpenAI post-IPO. Bitget's model is closer to "subscription issuance + subsequent trading," where users first participate in subscriptions and then wait for allocation and secondary market circulation. Its advantage lies in being closer to the traditional Pre-IPO subscription logic, but the products do not equal real equity, and users still need to understand the relationships among issuing entities, debt instruments, economic rights, and exit mechanisms.

In contrast, CoinW's entry point is more directly reflected in "Pre-IPO value discovery in the contract market." CoinW does not focus on complex subscription processes or on-chain equity mapping, but rather directly incorporates market expectations of unlisted companies like OpenAI, SpaceX, and Anthropic into the contract TradFi sector, trading in a USDT-denominated contract format familiar to Crypto users. This path's characteristics are that the product's understanding aligns more closely with contract trading, user participation is more direct, price discovery is more continuous, and it better matches CoinW's advantages as a centralized exchange in liquidity organization, risk control, and trading experience.

6. CoinW's Professionalism Reflects in Asset Selection and Product Boundaries

The most common issue with Pre-IPO products is users misunderstanding "valuation exposure" as "real equity." Hence, a platform's professionalism is reflected not only in its launch speed but also in whether it can clearly define product boundaries, control trading risks, and help users understand what they are actually trading.

CoinW's choice of SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic as the first key targets embodies a clear asset logic. SpaceX represents commercial aerospace and satellite internet, while OpenAI and Anthropic represent AI big models and artificial intelligence infrastructure. These companies are among the most watched unlisted tech firms in the global capital markets, characterized by high discussion rates, high growth expectations, and strong event catalysis properties, making them highly suitable as early examples in the Pre-IPO price discovery market. At the same time, placing them in the contract TradFi sector reflects the clarity of the product positioning. It does not package these assets as a narrative of "buying unlisted company stocks" but presents them as contract trading targets under the TradFi direction, allowing users to conduct long and short trades based on future value expectations. This expression is closer to the essence of the product and more conducive to forming a long-term healthy market understanding.

For exchanges, true competition is not just about "who launches a popular name first" but about "who can convert popular narratives into products with clear structures, smooth trading, and well-defined risk boundaries." CoinW adds value here by placing Pre-IPO into a more mature contract trading framework, preventing it from being easily misinterpreted.

7. From Crypto Native Assets to Global Value Assets

The industry significance of CoinW launching Pre-IPO contracts lies in its reflection of changes in the competitive landscape of exchanges. In the past, the core competition of crypto trading platforms primarily revolved around BTC, ETH, and other popular coins and on-chain projects. Users traded on-chain assets, protocol narratives, and crypto market cycles. However, with the ongoing development of RWA, TradFi, securities tokenization, and Pre-IPO products, the Crypto market is absorbing more pricing demands for real-world assets. AI companies, commercial aerospace firms, global unicorns, and future IPO targets are becoming new trading narratives. Users are no longer just concerned about the ecological progress of certain public chains but are also beginning to focus on the growth paths of global tech companies and capital market expectations. From this perspective, CoinW's launch of Pre-IPO contracts is not just a singular product innovation but an extension of the platform's asset map. It signifies that CoinW is evolving from a traditional crypto asset trading platform to a global value asset trading platform that encompasses Crypto, TradFi, tech stock narratives, and unlisted company valuation expectations. For exchanges, those who can more quickly identify new asset trends and convert them into mature, clear, and tradable products will have a better chance of taking the initiative in the next round of market competition.

8. Pre-IPO May Become a New Gateway for TradFi

Pre-IPO contracts are still in the early stages. Their price discovery mechanisms, market liquidity, user understanding, and risk management still require longer market validation. However, it is certain that they have opened a new direction: the objects of trading in the Crypto market are expanding from on-chain assets to the most watched tech companies and industry trends in the real world. CoinW's introduction of contracts related to unlisted companies like SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic into the TradFi sector is a concrete manifestation of this trend. It allows users to engage in market expressions of AI, commercial aerospace, and future IPO expectations in a familiar contract trading manner while enabling the exchange to renew its assets and move further towards asset discovery. As the growth expectations of global tech companies begin to enter the Crypto contract market, Pre-IPO may not just be a short-term hotspot but could become an important entry point for the expansion of TradFi assets. For CoinW, this is both a product innovation and a platform positioning upgrade: from serving crypto asset trading to connecting price discovery of global value assets.

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