Binance Lists SpaceX Pre-IPO Perps as $2T Valuation Bets Build

Crypto News

Binance launched a perpetual futures contract tied to SpaceX on May 21, listed under the ticker SPCXUSDT and settled in USDT. The product sits within a new category Binance calls Pre-IPO Perpetual Contracts. It runs on the same perpetual futures infrastructure the exchange uses for crypto derivatives.

The contracts are designed to let retail traders speculate on a private company's valuation before it lists on a public exchange. Before a company's IPO, the contract price reflects publicly available signals such as private funding round data and announced price ranges. Once the company's stock begins trading on a secondary exchange, the contract transitions to track live share performance.

Shunyet Jan, head of spot and derivatives at Binance, said the product gives users a more flexible way to engage with anticipated IPOs earlier. He described the launch as part of Binance's broader goal of operating as a financial super-app that broadens access to opportunities historically limited to institutional investors and venture capital firms.

SpaceX filed its S-1 registration statement with the SEC the same week. The filing disclosed Q1 revenue of $4.69 billion and a net loss of $4.28 billion. It also revealed that SpaceX holds 18,712 BTC at a cost basis of roughly $35,000 per coin. A possible Nasdaq debut as early as June was suggested in the document.

Rival Pre-IPO Markets Already Drawing Volume

Reuters reported that SpaceX is targeting a valuation of approximately $1.75 trillion for its listing. Traders on prediction market platform Polymarket priced in more than a 70% probability that the final IPO valuation will exceed $2 trillion. Deepwater Asset Management's Gene Munster said on X that SpaceX's S-1 filing drew more market attention than Nvidia's quarterly earnings on the same day, even as Nvidia reported above-consensus results and its shares closed flat at $220.60.

The Binance listing followed comparable SpaceX pre-IPO products from OKX, Crypto(dot)com, and Hyperliquid's TradeXYZ platform. TradeXYZ launched its SpaceX perpetual contract on May 18 at a reference price of $150 per share, implying a $1.78 trillion valuation. That contract generated $33 million in trading volume on its first day.

Some analysts have raised questions about whether growing attention around the SpaceX listing is weighing on crypto markets. BTC's price rally stalled near $80,000 about a week before the Binance launch and pulled back below $78,000 in the days that followed. Traditional market analysts have also flagged that the SpaceX offering, if completed near its target valuation, could divert significant capital from other market segments. Munster projected that Nvidia and SpaceX combined could reach a market capitalization of $7 trillion, framing SpaceX as a sovereign AI company with a more compelling long-term growth story than the chipmaker on a 10-year horizon.