Bybit Enters Private-Market Trading with Unitree and Moonshot AI Perpetuals
Bybit has expanded its offerings in private-market trading by launching pre-IPO perpetual contracts tied to Unitree, a Chinese robotics firm, and Moonshot AI, an artificial intelligence startup. This move comes as on-chain equities are gaining traction, with tokenized stocks reaching $2.38 billion in distributed value and 1.31 million holders.
Unitree received approval from China's securities regulator in July for an initial public offering (IPO) on Shanghai's STAR Market. The perpetual contracts give traders price exposure without ownership of the underlying shares, allowing them to bet on Unitree's future performance before its shares begin trading publicly.
This is not an isolated incident; several other crypto exchanges have also entered private-market products. Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken rolled out SpaceX-linked contracts ahead of the company's June listing, offering pre-IPO exposure through crypto-native derivatives.
Bybit's TradFi perpetuals lineup has grown to more than 200 products since launching in April, spanning equities, ETFs, commodities, indices, and pre-IPO companies. The USDT-denominated and settled contracts give traders price exposure without ownership of the underlying shares.