The Untold Story of Strategy and Choice Behind Bitget's IPO Prime Launch
- Core Viewpoint: Bitget's launch of the SpaceX Pre-IPO tokenized product is a crucial step in its strategic transformation into a "Universal Exchange" (UEX), aiming to provide users with access to equity in cutting-edge tech companies. This move, however, involves navigating complex challenges such as handling non-standard assets, compliance, and operations.
- Key Elements:
- Strategic Choice: Bitget selected SpaceX as its first Pre-IPO project because its grand narrative of "AI + Space" aligns with UEX's vision of acquiring assets representing humanity's future, aiming to reinforce the platform's forward-looking positioning.
- Partner Selection: Chose the fully licensed and compliant platform Republic Crypto as a partner due to its end-to-end RWA service capabilities and cross-jurisdictional operational qualifications, ensuring the authenticity of the underlying equity (held via SPV) and compliant tokenization.
- Core Product Design: Lowered the subscription threshold to $650 per share (corresponding to a $1.5 trillion valuation), offered a total pool of approximately $60 million, and designed exit paths for liquidity, including P2P OTC trading and post-listing redemption.
- Challenges Faced: The project encountered multiple pressures during its advancement, including market pricing confusion caused by SpaceX's acquisition of xAI, restrictions on the transfer of underlying assets, and internal cross-departmental coordination and compliance reviews.
- Risk Disclosure: Clearly informed users of risks such as market volatility, IPO delays, or cancellations, and established corresponding redemption mechanisms and protocol safeguards.
Many people ask me, why does Bitget go to such great lengths to offer Pre-IPO assets? Wouldn't it be simpler to just list a few popular cryptocurrencies or tokenized stocks?
The answer is simple. Since Bitget's goal is to become a Universal Exchange (UEX), we want all the global assets that our users are universally interested in trading. Therefore, even though Pre-IPO assets are non-standardized and we must navigate the intense friction between traditional laws, regulations, and the willingness of the target companies themselves, we are determined to rise to the challenge.
Today, I want to share the story behind the launch of IPO Prime's first project—the untold story of strategy and choices not mentioned in the announcement.
Why SpaceX? Because It's the Starting Point of the "Orbital Brain"
Earlier this year, Elon Musk made a wild decision: SpaceX acquired xAI.
The narrative behind this is staggering—bringing AI and computing power to space to build an "orbital brain."
When we discuss the asset composition for UEX, besides coins, RWA, and commodities, Pre-IPO assets that represent humanity's future are also an anchor point that strengthens the UEX trend. Therefore, SpaceX became our only choice for the first pilot project.
Finding the "Ferryman": A Two-Year Connection and Last Year's "Rigorous Scrutiny"
A photo with Andrew at Republic Crypto's New York office
I met Republic Crypto's Co-CEO Andrew Durgee two years ago, and he is one of my many "contacts" in the US. I often consult him on US crypto policies and the undisclosed discussions happening in the White House. At the company level, we began an in-depth investigation into Republic Crypto and their products last September. It wasn't until the beginning of this year that we decided to formally advance the Pre-IPO cooperation.
Why choose Republic? Because the Pre-IPO market is too chaotic. Many platforms promote projects with unclear underlying assets. Some don't fully hold the corresponding equity, others have allocations that are too small, and more often, the problem lies in insufficient licensing, posing extremely high risks.
We ultimately chose Republic because they operate with a full suite of licenses: they have established a complete chain for assets from "Issuance — Distribution — Trade," possess cross-jurisdictional compliance operation capabilities and end-to-end RWA service capabilities, and are one of the few global platforms with compliant qualifications in the US, Europe, and Asia. Their backers are also top-tier, including Valor Equity Partners (an early investor in Tesla and SpaceX), Morgan Stanley, and Web3 entities like Avalanche and Binance Labs (now Yzi labs).
Our cooperation model is hardcore: we insist on holding the corresponding Pre-IPO equity (e.g., SpaceX), typically held by an independent SPV, with Republic tokenizing the SPV's interests. This approach circumvents the difficulty of directly modifying SpaceX's shareholder registry while achieving extreme fractionalization of shares.
Republic provides a full suite of RWA (Real World Asset) on-chain solutions, including smart contract audits, KYC/AML integration, and full lifecycle token management.
The Final Sprint: Lost Sleep and the Sincerity of a ~$60M Total Pool
In the first half of this year, the Pre-IPO market experienced significant volatility. After SpaceX's acquisition of xAI (i.e., Grok), market pricing became instantly chaotic, and the transfer of underlying assets was restricted.
We had to, within an extremely short timeframe, re-verify assets, coordinate with equity sellers, persuade Republic's compliance officers, and handle the repeated back-and-forth negotiations over contract details between Bitget's internal departments like product and legal.
We insisted on lowering the subscription threshold and secured a share of a total pool of approximately $60 million. Users can subscribe using USDT, and we even designed a free airdrop for VIP users (airdrop share worth $500k). Because we want Web3 users to be able to share in Musk's vision of the stars and beyond, just like top-tier venture capitalists.
Giving Users "Accountability"
When designing this product, what we needed most was to give users "accountability," to at least consider their interests as much as we possibly could:
- Price Guarantee: The price is set at $650 (corresponding to an asset valuation of $1.5 trillion), which is lower than the market reference price (market references include financial news mentions of SpaceX's potential trillion-dollar valuation, trading prices above $800 on other private stock trading platforms, trading prices above $700 for similar tokens, and prediction market valuations of 1.5x to 2.5x).
- Exit Path: After the subscription period ends, users can participate in the platform's P2P OTC trading to achieve liquidity exit. Alternatively, they can hold long-term until 6 months after SpaceX's IPO and then redeem with Bitget at the prevailing price at that time.
- IPO Cancellation Redemption Mechanism: The agreement signed by users upon subscription will clearly detail the redemption process and price in the event of an IPO cancellation.
- Third-Party Risk: Bitget, as the admin agent for the third-party issuer, will safeguard user rights.
Conclusion: UEX is Not a Slogan, It's Action
The launch of IPO Prime is a significant milestone in Bitget's evolution from a CEX (Centralized Exchange) to a UEX (Universal Exchange).
We dare not claim it's absolutely perfect, but it is the best scheme we could achieve in the market—one that provides accountability to our users.
UEX is not a slogan; it is our obsession with financial democratization.
Project Risk Disclosure:
- Market Risk: SpaceX may be affected by policies or its roadshow may not be well-received, potentially leading to a decline in token price and user losses.
- IPO Delay or Cancellation Risk: Delays or cancellation of SpaceX's IPO will affect price appreciation expectations. Users must exchange according to the terms of the subscription agreement.
