BroadChain, April 28 - In Q1 2026, the weekly trading volume of commodity perpetual contracts (gold, silver, crude oil) on crypto exchanges surged from $38.1 million to $25 billion, an increase of 65,463%. The tokenization of traditional assets is becoming the dominant narrative in the crypto space over the next 5-10 years, with Pre-IPO tokenization being the latest branch of this wave.
In April, Bitget, Gate, and Binance (via PreStocks) almost simultaneously launched SpaceX-related tokenized products. Although compliance paths vary, the core logic remains consistent: fractionalizing Pre-IPO equity shares, previously available only to ultra-high-net-worth individuals, for sale to retail investors.
The traditional Pre-IPO secondary market has existed for over a decade, with global trading volume reaching $160 billion in 2024, of which the US direct secondary market accounted for $61.1 billion. Buyers are mostly family offices, sovereign wealth funds, and institutional investors, with minimum investment amounts typically exceeding $10 million, naturally excluding retail investors. Transactions are conducted through SPVs (Special Purpose Vehicles): original shareholders transfer shares into a newly established shell company, which then sells equity interests to new buyers, who receive SPV interests rather than direct shares.
The market is highly concentrated among a few leading targets. US AI and aerospace giants such as SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic consistently account for 30-40% of trading volume. Combined with ByteDance, Stripe, and others, the top 15 companies account for approximately 83% of the total. This explains why Bitget and Gate easily raised over $100 million with just one SpaceX token—supply of high-quality Pre-IPO assets is scarce, while demand is highly concentrated.
Most targets are US companies, making CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) a major regulatory hurdle. The agency restricts foreign investment in sensitive areas such as AI, semiconductors, and defense. Ultimate beneficial owners from restricted jurisdictions (e.g., China, Russia, Iran) face strict scrutiny when purchasing shares in SpaceX or Anthropic. Sellers typically prohibit such buyers from participating, and GPs conduct UBO due diligence at the SPV level, but deeply nested structures may still expose hidden beneficiaries, leading to transaction failures.