Hyperliquid Pre-market Contract Controversy: Why Did the SpaceX Share Count That Was Promised Suddenly Change?

Original by Odaily (@OdailyChina)

Author: Azuma (@Azuma_eth)

Yesterday, Odaily published an article analyzing the reasons behind the significant price discrepancies in SpaceX pre-market contracts on platforms like Binance, OKX, and Hyperliquid — it is recommended to first read "Why are SpaceX pre-market contract prices so different across exchanges?".

The article mentioned that when Hyperliquid launched the SpaceX pre-market contract SPCX via the ecosystem's HIP-3 market TradeXYZ, it disclosed in its documentation the use of a share count of approximately 11.87 billion shares. However, this reference was later removed, sparking community speculation about whether the market would subsequently undergo a Rebase.

• Odaily Note: Rebase refers to correcting share count data and corresponding positions based on real-world circumstances. For example, on the evening of June 8, Binance announced it would rebase its pre-market contract SPCX, adjusting the share count from the estimated 11.87 billion to the 13.08 billion shares disclosed in the latest IPO plan.

TradeXYZ Confirms: No Rebase!

Today, TradeXYZ officially responded to this matter.

TradeXYZ stated that its pre-market contracts, including SPCX, are price-based perpetual contracts that track the market's implied expected price per share of Class A common stock (or common stock). The share count and company market cap are not input parameters in the market rules, oracle pricing methodology, or final conversion mechanism.

As for the "11.87 billion shares" figure that previously appeared in the documentation, TradeXYZ explained that the documentation previously contained some illustrative examples showing how users could derive a "reasonable stock price" if they had their own expectations of the company's market cap and total share count. These examples were intended solely for background understanding, but the team received feedback that they could be misleading and has therefore removed them from the documentation.

To clarify, TradeXYZ confirms that it will not use, publish, or rely on any calculation benchmarks based on total share count or market cap in SPCX or any other XYZ markets in the future. Once SpaceX completes its IPO and sufficient external price data is available, SPCX is expected to transition to a standard external oracle pricing mechanism. At that time, the contract price is expected to gradually converge with SpaceX's public market trading price post-listing.

In plain English, TradeXYZ has confirmed it will not correct share count data via Rebase. As for the previously mentioned "11.87 billion shares," it was just an example and shouldn't be taken literally... Going forward, TradeXYZ's pre-market contracts will no longer reference share count data; whatever the company's actual share count is, TradeXYZ will track it as is...

Community Controversy: Promised Numbers, Now Revoked?

Unsurprisingly, TradeXYZ's statement has sparked significant controversy in the community. The core reason is that for SPCX participants (especially those who only opened positions on Hyperliquid), the general expectation was that SPCX's pricing logic was directly linked to SpaceX's share count.

The "11.87 billion shares" figure was once explicitly written in the official documentation. TradeXYZ had also explained earlier that if an investor expected SpaceX's valuation to be at a certain level and assumed a total share count of approximately 11.87 billion, a corresponding reasonable price range could be derived. Therefore, many users had already regarded this as part of the product's rules.

Now, the official party has deleted the data and claimed these contents were merely "illustrative examples," which understandably leaves some users feeling "backstabbed."

Although from TradeXYZ's statement today, the official party has tried to emphasize a different product logic — that is, unlike platforms like Binance and OKX which map stock prices through market cap and share count, TradeXYZ tends to view SPCX as an independent trading market, where the price directly reflects market participants' expectations for SpaceX's future stock price, rather than a theoretical result calculated through share count data.

However, for the vast majority of users, it is not easy to meticulously understand the differences in product rules and designs across different markets. At the same time, platforms like Binance and OKX were conducting public discussions regarding share count, valuation mapping, and the Rebase mechanism, so the market naturally began evaluating TradeXYZ and Hyperliquid using the same logic...

The discrepancy between user understanding and product design ultimately evolved into this debate over product transparency and expectation management.

Will the Pre-Market Contract Landscape Change?

No matter how this controversy ultimately concludes, the SpaceX pre-market contract has already become the largest and most closely watched "IPO preview" in the history of the crypto market.

More notably, as more and more unlisted star companies like Anthropic and OpenAI are brought onto on-chain trading markets, the pre-market contract sector itself is entering a new phase of competition.

In the past, competition among exchanges primarily focused on who could list popular assets first. But after the SPCX incident, the market may begin to pay more attention to another factor: whose rules are clearer, whose pricing logic is more transparent, and who can offer users a more stable and predictable product framework.