Coinbase has launched pre-IPO perpetual futures on its International Exchange, listing SpaceX as the first underlying asset.
The contracts are USDC-settled, trade 24/7 with no expiry, and are open to eligible users outside the United States, the company said in a blog post published June 3.
The product runs through Coinbase Bermuda Ltd., a Class F entity licensed by the Bermuda Monetary Authority. Maximum leverage is 5x. All profit and loss settles in USDC.
Valuation-Based Index Pricing
The SpaceX contract does not track a share price. It references a valuation-based index: a contract price of 1,735 implies a $1.735 trillion equity valuation. Coinbase uses this structure because a private company's total share count is not disclosed until the final 424B4 IPO prospectus is filed, making per-share pricing unreliable before listing, per its help documentation.
When SpaceX files its 424B4, Coinbase will rebase the contract into a standard per-share stock perp via a P&L-neutral adjustment. Open positions carry through the transition without rollover.
The Competitive Field
Coinbase is not the first to list a SpaceX perp. Trade.xyz launched a synthetic SpaceX pre-IPO perpetual on Hyperliquid in May, with an implied valuation near $1.78 trillion. BitMEX announced a USDT-margined SpaceX perp (SPCXUSDT) on June 4, set to go live at 04:00 UTC on June 5, also with 5x leverage.
What separates the Coinbase product is its regulatory wrapper and conversion mechanics. Coinbase Bermuda holds a BMA Class F licence and commits to an automated IPO conversion backed by a published index methodology. BitMEX's listing notes that conversion to a standard equity perp is at the exchange's discretion.
Pre-IPO Markets Get a Derivatives Layer
The launch fits a wider push to apply market-structure tools to private-company valuations. Last month, Polymarket partnered with Nasdaq Private Market to launch prediction markets on private-company valuations, with early markets on OpenAI, Anthropic, and Stripe. Coinbase's perp offers a different instrument — continuous leveraged exposure rather than discrete event outcomes — but targets the same structural gap: price discovery on companies not yet on public markets.
Brian Armstrong, Coinbase's chief executive, said on X that pre-IPO perps are "great to get exposure to private companies before they go public (outside the U.S. only for now) and to help with price discovery."
Coinbase has separately committed to launching perpetual-style equity index futures on its US-regulated Derivatives Exchange on June 14 — a different product aimed at US users trading market-sector exposure, not individual pre-IPO names.