Key Takeaways:
Velvet token has become the latest crypto beneficiary of SpaceX IPO fever, surging more than 300% since June 3 as traders pile into tokens offering pre-investing exposure to Elon Musk's space giant.
Velvet (VELVET) climbed from roughly $0.05 to break through the $0.20-$0.22 resistance zone by June 11, according to CoinGecko data. The move coincided with a wave of demand for SpaceX-linked crypto products ahead of the company's public listing, which priced at $135 per share for a $1.77 trillion valuation.
"Pre-IPO perpetuals on venues like Hyperliquid are functioning as a real-time price discovery mechanism for hot tech listings," Samar Sen, head of international markets at Talos, told Cointelegraph. "These signals will become increasingly difficult for underwriters and retail-facing platforms to ignore, particularly for high-profile listings where there is already active global demand before the IPO."
The SpaceX IPO drew more than $100 billion in retail orders, Bloomberg reported, with the company allocating at least 20% of available shares to individual investors. Pre-IPO perpetuals on Hyperliquid were trading around $180, implying a $2.3 trillion valuation, with over $143 million in trading volume and $208 million in open interest as of June 11. Polymarket traders placed 70% odds on SpaceX closing above $2 trillion in market value on its first trading day.
The Velvet rally reflects a broader pattern of crypto traders using tokenized assets and perpetual contracts to gain synthetic exposure to private companies before they list on traditional exchanges. SpaceX-linked tokenized shares on Binance, Bybit and Bitget Wallet were ultimately canceled after Kraken's xStocks platform failed to secure sufficient IPO allocation, leaving retail subscribers empty-handed despite $557 million in committed capital across three major exchanges.
The episode has sharpened the distinction between price discovery and actual allocation. Pre-IPO derivatives generated credible signals — SPCX perpetual markets recorded roughly $4.6 billion in trading volume on IPO day, with total open interest peaking near $500 million across eight venues including Hyperliquid, Binance, OKX and Kraken, according to Talos Research. But tokenized share offerings collapsed at the last mile because crypto platforms cannot control primary market allocations that remain with traditional underwriters.
For Velvet, the question is whether the token can sustain its rally beyond the SpaceX listing event. The $0.20 level now serves as key support, with the next resistance zone near $0.30 based on the breakout structure. A drop back below $0.20 would weaken the bullish case and risk a retracement toward the $0.14-$0.15 area, traders said.
The broader implication extends beyond a single token. The SpaceX episode demonstrated that crypto markets can generate deep liquidity and continuous price discovery for pre-IPO names — the SPCX perpetuals alone saw $4.6 billion in volume on listing day. But the gap between synthetic exposure and actual share allocation remains a structural constraint that will require closer collaboration between crypto platforms, traditional intermediaries and regulators to resolve, as Bitget chief executive Gracy Chen noted after her exchange pivoted to broker-backed tokenized equities through its Reality platform.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
