Perpetual futures tied to Unitree Robotics were trading at around $100 on Hyperliquid as of August 18, implying a $40.5 billion valuation for the humanoid robot maker ahead of its Shanghai Stock Exchange debut. The price represents more than 300% upside from the company's IPO valuation of approximately $9 billion.
Unitree priced its initial public offering at 150.8 yuan per share and began trading on the STAR Market on August 19. The onchain futures market has been pricing in substantial gains since mid-August, when the contracts were trading at $92 to $94, according to reports from the period.
Hyperliquid hosts perpetual futures contracts tied to equities and other real-world assets, allowing traders to speculate on prices using margin without holding the underlying security. The Unitree contracts function as a synthetic bet on the company's equity value. Such contracts have emerged as a venue for price discovery ahead of and after major public listings, particularly for companies with significant retail or crypto-native investor interest.
Unitree manufactures humanoid robots and legged quadruped robots for industrial and research applications. The Shanghai listing marks the first major robotics manufacturer IPO on a mainland Chinese exchange in recent years. The company's valuation trajectory shows both the sector's investor appetite and the specific dynamics of onchain derivative pricing.
The gap between the IPO price and the futures market price at listing shows traders' expectation of a substantial first-day pop, a common occurrence in Chinese tech IPOs. However, the magnitude of the implied move, from roughly $27 per share equivalent at IPO to $100 on Hyperliquid, also results from the smaller, more volatile participant pool on crypto derivatives exchanges compared to traditional equity markets.
Unitree's STAR Market listing arrives as Chinese regulators have maintained restrictions on onchain trading and margin products domestically, leaving offshore crypto exchanges as the primary venue for exposure to the company's valuation before and after the debut. The futures contracts allow international traders without access to Shanghai's equity market to take positions on Unitree's stock price.
