As part of our effort to increase transparency and share our thinking more broadly, we are excited to share the introduction to our 1Q, 2026 Scenius Ventures investor update with our network. While the full update remains confidential to investors, we hope the themes and perspectives are valuable to a broader set of readers.
Click below to read the full investor update intro.
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Dear Partner,
Before jumping into this quarter’s update, we wanted to offer a digital hug to our AI equities focused friends who are experiencing crypto-like volatility for the first time. May this Scenius investor letter discussing perpetual futures, pre-IPO tokenized equities, and compute markets act as a warm blanket in these uncertain times.
On June 12th, SpaceX went public at a valuation north of $1.7 trillion, the largest IPO in history. A tremendous triumph for Elon Musk and his army of supporters and investors. Those of us in crypto, however, were watching through a different lens, where data centers in space were not the splashy headline.
In the weeks before the listing, several of the world’s largest crypto platforms marketed tokenized SpaceX shares to their customers. On listing day, three canceled. The products depended on securing real IPO shares, and when the allocations did not arrive, there was nothing to tokenize. Another platform delivered exposure subject to a 180-day lockup that was not apparent to some buyers until trading began. SpaceX opened, the shares rose 19%, and customers who had turned to these platforms for access were left watching from the sidelines.
Hyperliquid took a different approach. Rather than promise ownership of shares it might not receive, the decentralized exchange hosted a perpetual contract tied to SpaceX’s share price. Nothing to allocate, nothing to wrap, and nothing to lock up. It remained open throughout the listing and did $1.4 billion in volume on the day.
More interesting was what the SPCX perp did beforehand. For weeks, it was the only liquid public market expressing a view on what SpaceX might be worth. A month earlier, the same mechanism had been tested during the Cerebras IPO, where the pre-IPO perpetual on Hyperliquid settled within 1.3% of the stock’s Nasdaq opening price. A synthetic market on blockchain rails, open 24/7/365, priced the debut almost exactly where the public market ultimately cleared it.
Polymarket demonstrated the predictive power of blockchain-based markets during the 2024 Presidential election. Hyperliquid is now doing something similar with pre-IPO equities. These markets collect information continuously, allow anyone with capital and conviction to participate, and remain open when traditional exchanges are closed. Stock perpetuals on Hyperliquid traded $18.8 billion in the first half of June. Jeffrey Sprecher, whose company ICE owns the New York Stock Exchange, called Hyperliquid “bigger than Nasdaq” earlier this year. An exaggeration, but a noteworthy comment.
Link in comments
- The article discusses the challenges and failures of traditional platforms in tokenizing SpaceX shares for IPO access, highlighting issues with allocation and lockups.
- It contrasts this with decentralized exchanges like Hyperliquid, which offered perpetual contracts for SpaceX shares, demonstrating price discovery and continuous market access.
- The piece emphasizes the growing role of blockchain-based markets in providing synthetic exposure to pre-IPO equities and their potential to outperform traditional methods.
Topics: Asset types, Institutional adoption, Integration with defi, Alternative assets, Asset manager initiatives, Rwa collateral lending
Tags: #spacex #tokenizedequities #perpetualfutures #hyperliquid #ipo #blockchain #decentralizedexchange #preipo #syntheticmarket #pricediscovery
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