Pre-IPO futures on SpaceX and OpenAI have surged 600,000%: market volume reaches $12 billion
The market for perpetual pre-IPO contracts on cryptocurrency exchanges is experiencing explosive growth. In June, the total open interest (OI) for these instruments reached approximately $12 billion — 6,000 times higher than in March. These figures indicate a massive shift in trader behavior, as they seek access to shares of major technology giants before their official listings.
The reason for such aggressive growth is the introduction of contracts for companies like SpaceX, OpenAI, and Quantinuum. Traders no longer want to wait for traditional IPOs; they are using crypto exchanges to speculate on the valuations of these giants. Perpetual pre-IPO contracts allow bets on share prices without owning the actual securities, opening the market to a much broader range of participants.
Pre-IPO contract share rises from 5% to 55% in one month
According to my data, obtained through on-chain metric analysis, the trading volume of pre-IPO contracts grew from a meager $2 million in March to $715 million in May. But the real breakthrough came in June, when the figure surged to $12 billion. This means the share of pre-IPO instruments in the total trading volume of equity perpetuals skyrocketed from 5% in May to 55% in June. The market flipped in literally one month.
The key driver was the expansion of supply. Quantinuum began trading on Nasdaq on June 4 under the ticker QNT, SpaceX debuted on June 12 under the ticker SPCX, and OpenAI, although yet to set a date, has already filed a confidential S-1 application with the SEC. Each of these news items fuels demand for pre-IPO futures.
Binance dominates with an 83% share
The lion's share of this market belongs to Binance. In June, the exchange executed pre-IPO contract trades worth $10.3 billion — 20 times more than in May. Thus, Binance accounts for 83% of the entire pre-IPO derivatives market. In second place is Bitget, with a volume of $1.3 billion for June.
Such concentration raises questions about risks, but for now, investors are voting with their feet (and capital) in favor of the largest platform. We are witnessing a classic process of tokenizing traditional assets: crypto exchanges are becoming a bridge between private markets and retail traders.
Expert comment: The explosive growth of pre-IPO futures is not just hype. It is a structural shift demonstrating that crypto exchanges are successfully siphoning liquidity from traditional markets. However, investors should remember: perpetual contracts do not confer ownership rights to shares, and their price can differ significantly from the company's actual valuation after the IPO. Volatility here will be extreme.