On July 27, ChangXin Memory Technologies completed China’s largest initial public offering since 2010, raising $8.6 billion on Shanghai’s STAR Market. The chipmaker’s shares debuted at 8.66 yuan ($1.28), valuing the company at about $85.5 billion. This marked the largest semiconductor IPO in Chinese history, surpassing SMIC’s $7.5 billion raise in 2020.
The stock popped dramatically on its first day, surging as much as 466%, signaling strong investor enthusiasm. CXMT, China’s top DRAM manufacturer by capacity and the world’s fourth largest, is now vying with global giants like Samsung and Micron.
Crypto Futures Bet Big Before Listing
Nearly two weeks earlier, cryptocurrency platform Trade.xyz launched a perpetual futures contract on Hyperliquid, allowing traders to speculate on CXMT’s IPO outcome before shares traded. The contract, settled in USDC and offering 5x use, started at $5 per share, then soared to $8.64, implying a $560 billion valuation at its peak. This was more than six times the company's official valuation.
Unlike traditional stock ownership, these crypto futures gave no dividends, voting rights, or actual shares, serving purely as speculative instruments. Given that foreign investors face restrictions entering China’s A-share markets, especially the STAR Market, this crypto product became a rare access point to one of the year’s most significant IPOs.
The huge gap between the futures market’s implied valuation and the actual IPO price highlights the challenges early crypto derivatives face thin liquidity and volatile price discovery. While this experiment was novel, it revealed limits of pre-IPO crypto markets as reliable indicators.
