Binance has launched perpetual futures, allowing users to trade in expected valuations of private companies before they go public. The first contract to go into effect is with SpaceX, which is expected to be valued at $2 trillion or more when it goes public.
Pre-IPO Perpetual Contracts are designed to provide retail traders with early exposure to high-profile initial public offerings (IPOs), a segment historically reserved for institutional investors and venture capital firms. The first listing of SPCXUSDT will be margined and settled with a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. And based on the expected market valuation of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
The move marks the expansion of Binance’s derivatives product suite into traditional finance.
Shunyet Jan, head of spot and derivatives at Binance, said in a press release shared with CoinDesk: “Pre-IPO perpetual futures are another example of how Binance is democratizing market opportunity by combining crypto-native infrastructure with major financial events. As interest in public listings continues to grow, we are giving users a more flexible way to participate in anticipated IPOs in advance.”
Jan added: “This launch embodies our vision for Binance as a financial super app – one that provides a growing range of financial opportunities that are traditionally more difficult to access.”
These pre-IPO contracts are built on the same perpetual futures track as cryptocurrency trading. Before a company goes public, contract prices will reflect public signals, such as private financing rounds and announced IPO price ranges. Once the stock begins trading on a secondary exchange, the contract will transform to reflect the stock’s real-time market performance.
SpaceX filed an S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday, disclosing its holdings of 18,712 Bitcoins at a cost of approximately $35,000 per Bitcoin. The filing also disclosed first-quarter revenue of $4.69 billion and a net loss of $4.28 billion, and hinted at a possible Nasdaq listing next month.
Traders on the decentralized gambling platform Polymarket predict that there is more than a 70% chance that the IPO’s final closing price will exceed $2 trillion. Reuters reported that SpaceX’s listing plan targets a valuation of approximately US$1.75 trillion.
Binance also recently listed SpaceX pre-market futures, following the launch of similar products from OKX, Crypto.com and Hyperliquid’s Trade.xyz. Trade.xyz’s SpaceX perpetual futures launched on May 18 with a reference price of $150 per share, implying a valuation of $1.78 trillion, and generated an impressive $33 million in trading volume on the first day alone.
The growing number of markets ahead of SpaceX’s IPO is likely to attract capital and, more importantly, attention to the major cryptocurrency.
It could be more than a coincidence that Bitcoin’s gains around $80,000 a week ago ran out of steam and the price has since fallen back below $78,000.
Traditional market analysts are concerned that SpaceX’s upcoming IPO, expected to be the largest stock initial public offering in history, could divert large amounts of money from other parts of the U.S. market, including European IPOs.
Deepwater Asset Management’s Gene Munster captured the X sentiment, noting that SpaceX’s bombshell IPO filing on Wednesday “sucked the air out of NVDA’s quarter,” even as the artificial intelligence chip maker delivered blowout quarterly earnings. Nvidia shares ended the day flat at $220.60.
“Yes, NVDA crushed earnings,” Munster said. “But SpaceX’s positioning as a sovereign AI company provides a more compelling long-term (10-year) growth story.” Nvidia and SpaceX could have a combined market value of $7 trillion, he added.
