CashboardGlossary · Tokenization
What are pre-IPO perps?
Pre-IPO perps are perpetual futures on a private company such as OpenAI that trade before it lists, with no public share price for them to track.
How do pre-IPO perps work?
A pre-IPO perp works like any perpetual future: post collateral, go long or short, and funding passes between the two sides. What it lacks is a public share price, so each venue builds its own reference. On Lighter a pre-IPO market uses only its internal price, a smoothed average of its own order book with no cap tied to an outside feed, and positions run on isolated margin only. Kraken's index also comes from its own market and is smoothed, with leverage capped at 5x.
The idea spread fast in 2026. Trade.xyz opened a SpaceX perp on Hyperliquid on May 18, Binance followed on May 21, and OKX and Crypto.com offered similar contracts. SpaceX then listed on Nasdaq as SPCX on June 12. Kraken lists OpenAI and Anthropic perps, and Lighter's Robinhood Chain books carry pre-IPO markets next to its stock perps.
The risk sits in the structure. With no listed shares to buy or short against the contract, no arbitrage pulls it toward a fair value, and a premium over the last funding round can simply persist. When the company lists, the contract moves to the share price, and the jump from one reference to the other lands on whoever is leveraged at the time.
A made-up case: a pre-IPO perp trades at $150 for a company whose last private round implied $120 a share. The IPO prices at $130 and the stock opens there. A long from $150 is down about 13% before leverage, and at 5x that is two thirds of the margin gone.
Also called: pre-IPO perpetuals, pre-IPO perpetual futures, private company perps.
Where do pre-IPO perps show up in Cashboard?
The Robinhood perps widget lists pre-IPO markets from Lighter's Robinhood Chain exchange in its Stocks view with a Pre-IPO tag, next to their mark, 24 hour range, open interest, maximum leverage and funding. The tag comes from a fixed list of company names in Cashboard, not from Lighter, so a company can keep it for a while after it lists. The HIP-3 view of the Hyperliquid markets widget also shows builder-deployed pre-IPO perps, tagged preipo.
Frequently asked questions
What happens to a pre-IPO perp when the company goes public?
It moves to the listed share price. Lighter converts its pre-IPO markets into normal markets once a stable price feed exists after the IPO, and Binance said its SpaceX perp would follow the shares once they traded. Kraken expects margin, funding and position limits to change at that point as well.
Does a pre-IPO perp give you shares in the company?
No. It is a cash-settled contract with no shares behind it, so there is no vote and no claim on the company. And with no listed shares to trade against, the perp can hold a premium to the last funding round for as long as buyers keep paying it.
Related terms
Last reviewed . Market data in Cashboard comes from the providers named on each widget and may be delayed. Nothing here is financial advice.