Exchange offers non-US users 24/7 exposure to private companies via USDC-settled contracts
Coinbase has launched pre-IPO markets, starting with SpaceX, offering users outside the United States exposure to private companies before they list publicly. The product takes the form of perpetual futures contracts tied to estimated pre-listing valuations, with no expiry or rollover dates.
Positions are settled in USDC and can open and close at any time. Upon a company’s IPO, positions automatically transition to post-IPO perpetual futures referencing the public listing. Coinbase made the offering available to “eligible users in supported jurisdictions outside the United States,” according to a company statement.
The product is unavailable to US persons at launch due to regulatory restrictions on offering private market securities exposure. SpaceX was selected as the initial listing due to strong global demand for exposure to the company, which carries institutional valuations near $1.75 trillion in recent private market estimates.
Pre-IPO market exposure has traditionally been limited to venture capital firms and institutional investors. Coinbase’s move follows similar launches by competitors. Binance launched derivative products linked to private firms including SpaceX in May. Bitget launched its IPO Prime platform with a SpaceX-linked offering in April, and Payward announced a similar pre-IPO initiative on an unspecified Wednesday.
The broader tokenized assets market is expanding rapidly. Research from Bernstein released May 26 valued the real-world assets (RWA) market at $51 billion, with expansion of 42% this year. Tokenized stocks currently represent a low-single-digit share of the RWA market, with most activity concentrated in Tesla, Alphabet, and Microsoft on offshore platforms, according to a Bitget report published May 26.
Coinbase published details of the product on its company blog on an unspecified Thursday. The exchange did not respond to requests for comment on the specific launch mechanics or eligible jurisdictions.
