2026 is shaping up to be the most active IPO year in US stock market history. From SpaceX and OpenAI to Anthropic, a wave of super unicorns are filing for public listings, with the combined valuation of the world’s top ten private companies now exceeding $4.5 trillion. At the same time, the crypto sector’s IPO window is opening, as native crypto firms like Kraken, Consensys, Ledger, CertiK, and tZero announce their plans to go public. JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are fully engaged in underwriting crypto IPOs. AI and crypto—two of the hottest tracks in today’s capital markets—are competing for pre-IPO investment opportunities. Which sector deserves more attention?
AI Track: A Trillion-Dollar Feast
By April 2026, OpenAI’s implied pre-IPO valuation has reached $1 trillion, up 163% since October 2025. The company may officially go public in the fourth quarter this year. However, OpenAI’s "rival" is advancing even faster—Anthropic’s valuation in the secondary market has surpassed $1 trillion, more than tripling within the year. On leading private trading platform Forge Global, some shareholders have even offered to sell at a $1.15 trillion valuation.
Zooming out, SpaceX is lining up with a valuation over $1.7 trillion, while ByteDance is valued at more than $400 billion. According to the Financial Times, SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic alone could have a combined valuation exceeding $2.5 trillion.
The fundraising side is just as heated. Since the start of 2026, domestic embodied intelligence companies have disclosed more than 30 financing rounds, totaling about 20 billion RMB, with the number of companies valued at over 10 billion RMB expanding to 13. Reasoning GPU firms like Xiwang have raised over 1 billion RMB in single rounds, becoming unicorns in their niche. Meanwhile, autonomous driving leaders like Momenta and DeepWay have completed pre-IPO financings worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Yet, beneath the investment frenzy lies a risk of bubbles: capital inflows into embodied intelligence far outpace actual revenues, with the combined annual revenue of the first-tier companies falling short of 10 billion RMB.
Crypto Track: The "Hidden IPO Wave" Overshadowed by AI
As the market focuses on trillion-dollar AI giants, the "infrastructure layer" of the crypto sector is quietly heading to the public markets. Circle has completed its IPO on the NYSE, raising $1.1 billion at $31 per share. BitGo rang the bell on the NYSE in January 2026, surging over 20% on its first day and reaching a $2.6 billion market cap. As of April 24, the total crypto market cap stands at $2.6 trillion, with Bitcoin at $78,170 and Ethereum at $2,321.
The IPO pipeline for 2026 is even richer. Kraken is valued at $20 billion, with 2024 revenues hitting $1.5 billion and investments from top market makers like Citadel Securities. Consensys, the parent company of MetaMask, is valued at $7 billion and is preparing for an IPO in partnership with JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs. Ledger plans to list on the NYSE at a valuation above $4 billion. CertiK, valued at $2 billion, is targeting an IPO by late 2026 or early 2027. Tokenization platform tZero has also announced plans to go public in 2026. However, according to the latest updates, Kraken paused its IPO plans in March due to weak market conditions, while CertiK, specializing in security audits, reaffirmed its IPO ambitions at Davos. The crypto regulatory environment is becoming clearer: the GENIUS Act has established the first federal framework for stablecoins, and the CLARITY Act has clarified asset classifications. The US SEC has also defined how tokenized securities can operate within the legal framework.
Gate Pre-IPOs: A Ticket to Downscaled Participation
Traditionally, pre-IPO investments have been dominated by top venture capital firms, hedge funds, and ultra-high-net-worth individuals, leaving ordinary investors to chase stocks at higher prices post-listing. In April 2026, Gate officially launched its digital pre-IPO platform, opening this previously exclusive channel to over 52 million users worldwide.
The core mechanism tokenizes traditional pre-IPO equity using blockchain technology. Users stake USDT to mint PreTokens, which represent future tokenized equity rights. These can be freely traded 24/7 in the order book market, and pre-market trading is enabled once asset distribution occurs. Gate Pre-IPOs’ first project, SpaceX (SPCX), saw subscriptions exceed $353 million in just 24 hours, with a minimum entry threshold of only 100 USDT. Whether it’s AI giants like OpenAI and Anthropic or crypto leaders like Consensys and Ledger, users can build positions in top pre-IPO companies from both sectors in one place.
Conclusion
The pre-IPO investment market in 2026 is undergoing unprecedented structural change. The AI track leads with sky-high trillion-dollar valuations, fueling market imagination and intense capital enthusiasm—but the risks of valuation bubbles and gaps in commercialization are equally significant. The crypto track’s valuations are more grounded, and as regulatory frameworks become clearer and infrastructure matures, "water seller"-type crypto companies are entering a golden window for compliant public listings. These two tracks aren’t mutually exclusive—through Gate’s pre-IPO platform, investors can access both, participating in early-stage opportunities that were once reserved for top institutions, all at a much lower capital threshold.
