Coinbase Launches Pre-IPO Perpetual Futures with SpaceX as First Asset

Coinbase announced earlier this week that it has launched pre-IPO perpetual futures contracts, with SpaceX as the first available asset, opening the product to eligible users outside the United States.

The move gives retail traders outside the US price exposure to one of the world’s most closely watched private companies without requiring equity ownership or traditional brokerage access.

What the Product Actually Is

The SpaceX contract is a perpetual futures position, meaning traders can go long or short on SpaceX’s implied valuation around the clock with no expiry date and no need to roll positions, with all profit and loss settled in USDC.

When and if SpaceX completes an IPO, Coinbase says open positions will automatically convert to a standard SpaceX perpetual contract, and there will be no further action required from the holder.

The product is being offered through Coinbase Bermuda Ltd., which holds a Class F license from the Bermuda Monetary Authority, and it’s not available to US citizens.

Coinbase was explicit in its legal disclosures that the contracts carry elevated risk compared to standard perpetuals, specifically citing a valuation-based index pricing mechanism, IPO conversion risk, lower liquidity, and higher volatility.

It described SpaceX as “just the first,” saying it is building a pipeline of pre-IPO perpetual futures across technology, AI, energy, and space.

This Market Already Exists, With a Track Record

Pre-IPO perpetual markets for SpaceX are not new to crypto, as Hyperliquid-linked platforms such as Trade.xyz have been offering them for some time.

When Trade.xyz introduced SPCX, it helped push the HYPE token to within 19% of its all-time high, and it has since improved on that, recording a new ATH barely two days ago and forcing its way into the top 10 by market cap.

Another provider, Ventuals, also drew attention recently when its SPACEX-USDH market flash-crashed 45%, dropping from around $2,200 to roughly $1,200 in a short period and liquidating more than $1.5 million in leveraged positions, showing how fragile these markets can be.

The platform attributed the incident to incorrect data from an off-chain price oracle and confirmed that it would compensate affected users.

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