Crypto Distribution for Pre-IPO Tokens
Xavier Ekkel, founder of PreStocks, on 24/7 tokenized pre-IPO stock
PreStocks is choosing the market where crypto already gives it a structural edge, instead of fighting to recreate the whole private markets stack from scratch. In practice that means selling into wallets, exchanges, and DeFi apps that already aggregate global retail attention, then using that distribution to improve trading volume and price discovery. That is a different play from classic secondary brokers, which start with issuer workflows, paperwork, and one off negotiated deals.
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Traditional pre-IPO secondaries are still slow and manual. Deals can take weeks or months, buyers and sellers are matched through brokers, and issuers care most about cap table control. PreStocks wraps SPV exposure into a token so the investor sees a tradeable asset instead of a bespoke transaction packet.
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The real comparison set is less Forge or Nasdaq Private Market, and more tokenized asset platforms like Backed and Kraken xStocks. Those platforms use crypto rails to turn distribution into liquidity, but they mostly started with safer assets like stablecoins, T-bills, and public stocks. PreStocks is moving one step further out the risk curve into private company exposure.
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That also explains the Solana choice. If tokens can move into any wallet or Solana app, liquidity providers, traders, and holders can all meet in the same place. Robinhood style closed systems can offer tokenized exposure, but they keep the asset inside their own app, which limits downstream network effects.
The next phase is a split market. Issuer controlled platforms will keep owning highly permissioned liquidity events, while crypto native platforms push toward continuous trading, borrowing, and eventually shorting of private company exposure. If PreStocks wins, it will not look like a better broker. It will look like private stock becoming just another on-chain asset class.