Author: 137Labs

When Mai Tong MSX announced its collaboration with Republic to launch a Pre-IPO private equity tokenization section aimed at retail investors, an investment field that had long belonged only to top institutions was being reopened.

In the past, ordinary investors could only buy in through the secondary market after a company went public, but today, through the combination of tokenization technology and compliance channels, some individuals are beginning to attempt to position themselves before a company's official IPO. Whether it's SpaceX, the highest valued unlisted company globally, or the artificial intelligence giant OpenAI, both have become core targets in this trend.

This is not only a piece of news about platform cooperation but also an important signal of the accelerated evolution in the Pre-IPO space.

1. Pre-IPO: The stage that truly creates "excess returns"

In the traditional financial system, Pre-IPO refers to the last few rounds of financing before a company goes public. At this time, the company usually has already completed product verification and refined its business model, with risks significantly lower than in the early venture capital stages, but the valuation has not yet been fully re-evaluated by the public market.

Over the past 25 years, the overall value created by the private market has far exceeded that of the public stock market during the same period, meaning that a large amount of growth dividend has already been realized before the company goes public. By the time a company enters the secondary market, early investors often have already secured the most explosive return ranges.

Take SpaceX as an example; its non-public valuation exhibited exponential growth in just a few years; similar situations have occurred with leading companies in AI, fintech, and the cryptocurrency industry. The unlisted phase is often when the valuation leap is most rapid.

The issue is that this stage has long been firmly controlled by private equity, venture capital, and family offices.

2. A trillion-dollar scale, yet a highly closed market

The total valuation of global unicorn companies has reached the scale of hundreds of trillions of RMB, yet ordinary investors can hardly access this market.

Traditional Pre-IPO investments have three high barriers:

1.Extremely high financial threshold

Entry amounts can be hundreds of thousands or even over a million dollars, with the "qualified investor" standard keeping the vast majority of retail investors out.

2.Poor liquidity

Funds are typically locked for many years, with exits relying on IPOs or mergers and acquisitions, during which there is a lack of an effective secondary market.

3.Information and distribution asymmetry

Hot targets like SpaceX, OpenAI, and ByteDance see premium shares circulating almost exclusively among a few top institutions.

Even with secondary private equity transfer platforms like Forge and EquityZen in the U.S., the nature remains point-to-point matching, with low transaction efficiency and opaque pricing mechanisms.

In other words, this is a huge market with significant potential returns but extremely unbalanced access rules.

3. Traditional brokers test the waters: A signal from Robinhood

In June 2025, internet brokerage giant Robinhood launched "stock tokens" for unlisted unicorns, including OpenAI and SpaceX, in the European market.

This move triggered significant controversy. OpenAI quickly clarified that the related tokens do not represent company equity; subsequently, Elon Musk mocked the comments on social media, further increasing the event's visibility.

The controversy reflects two realities:

· There is real demand in the market for on-chain Pre-IPO assets

· Unlisted companies are highly sensitive to "pricing power spillover"

Regardless of positions, this attempt has released a clear signal—the tokenization of first-market assets has begun to enter the mainstream financial landscape.

4. Three paths for on-chain Pre-IPO

As regulatory attitudes gradually loosen and technological infrastructures mature, three typical models for on-chain Pre-IPO have emerged.

1.Derivative model: Trading valuations, not actual equity

Some projects do not hold actual stocks but allow users to bet on the valuation changes of unlisted companies using perpetual contracts or index contracts.

For example, platforms on Solana and other high-performance chains allow users to long or short the "OpenAI Valuation Index." This method has a low threshold and flexible liquidity design, but the issues include:

· Pricing depends on oracle data

· Private company valuation updates are infrequent

· Regulatory attributes are in a gray area

Its essence is closer to a prediction market rather than equity investment.

2. 1:1 Actual Equity Tokenization (SPV Model)

This model involves establishing a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to hold actual shares and issue tokens on-chain in proportion to the shares held.

Representative platforms include PreStocks related to Republic, as well as Jarsy developed by a U.S. team. Their core logic is:

· First raise funds

· Negotiate to acquire shares with original shareholders

· Mint an equal amount of tokens according to actual holdings

The advantage of this method is that assets are supported by physical holdings, and investors enjoy economic rights; the disadvantage is that expansion is slow, it heavily relies on offline resources, and there is significant compliance pressure.

3.Companies actively go on-chain (issuer model)

Another more disruptive path is for companies themselves to become the issuing entities.

The Opening Bell platform launched by Superstate attempts to allow companies to directly issue legally valid stock tokens on-chain while synchronizing the on-chain shareholder register.

This means that in the future, some companies may even bypass traditional IPO processes to achieve quasi-public trading on-chain.

If regulators ultimately recognize this model, the structure of capital markets may be redefined.

5. MSX × Republic: Structural innovation under a compliant framework

Returning to the collaboration between MSX and Republic.

Republic operates under the SEC regulatory framework as a private securities platform, with a compliance issuance and custody system, its underlying assets held by regulated entities. Through the partnership, MSX intends to combine:

· Compliant private equity

· SPV holding structure

· On-chain tokenized issuance

· Trading platform circulation mechanism

This means that MSX's Pre-IPO section is not a "virtual mapping" but a structural innovation built on the existing regulatory framework.

For ordinary investors, changes are mainly reflected in three aspects:

▻Lower threshold

No longer a million-dollar level entry ticket.

▻Valuation frontloading

Avoid taking emotional premiums during the IPO frenzy.

▻Liquidity exploration

Through on-chain mechanisms, attempts are made to improve the traditional private equity multi-year lockup dilemma.

6. Real challenges still exist

Despite the attractive prospects, on-chain Pre-IPO still faces three core issues:

1. Regulatory boundaries are not yet fully clear

2. Unlisted companies have a complex attitude toward tokenization

3. Liquidity depth and pricing efficiency still need validation

In particular, the actual holding model's expansion capability depends on offline resource integration, while the derivative model must resolve information delays and manipulation risks.

On-chain Pre-IPO is not merely a technological issue but the result of a multi-level game among financial structures, regulatory systems, and corporate governance.

7. Democratization of investment or a new round of risk transfer?

Millennials and Generation Z are gradually becoming the main force in investments; they tend to actively allocate high-growth assets rather than relying solely on pension systems. Unlisted tech giants hold inherent appeal for this generation.

The emergence of on-chain Pre-IPO, to some extent, narrows the opportunity gap between retail and institutional investors.

However, we must also be sober:

· Information disclosure for unlisted companies is limited

· Valuations may significantly deviate from actual operating conditions

· Weak liquidity may amplify volatility

Pre-IPO has never been a low-risk investment; it represents a different risk structure.

Conclusion: The walls are beginning to loosen

From Robinhood's testing the waters to Republic's structured compliance issuance, and then to MSX including Pre-IPO in its tokenization framework, this field is rapidly maturing.

The once impregnable walls of the primary market are beginning to show cracks.

In the future capital markets, there may no longer be a strict distinction between "pre-IPO" and "post-IPO," but a continuous flow achieved through on-chain asset forms.

When ordinary investors can participate in the growth of the world's top unlisted companies through wallets, what we see is not just a new product launch, but a reconstruction of capital structures.

The era of Pre-IPO may just be beginning.

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