بورصات العملات الرقمية تمنح المتداولين الأجانب إمكانية الوصول إلى أسهم الذكاء الاصطناعي الصينية
Crypto traders are getting access to China’s AI stock rush through a route Beijing did not build for them. Instead of buying mainland shares, offshore investors are using perpetual futures tied to Chinese chip companies.
These contracts let users wager on share values without actually holding the shares. They are traded continuously on cryptocurrency exchanges. This setup has created a separate market for names that are hard for foreign capital to reach through regular exchanges.
The biggest target is CXMT, a Chinese memory-chip maker set to start trading in Shanghai on Monday. TradeXYZ and Gate.com have listed perpetual contracts linked to the company before its public debut. CoinGlass recorded about $19 million in CXMT perp volume over 24 hours. The chipmaker wants to collect nearly $10 billion, which would make the deal mainland China’s largest IPO since 2010.
How crypto platforms bypass China’s stock rules
Beijing maintains a controlled framework to stop foreign investment in Shanghai and Shenzhen stocks. Usually, foreign investors join through the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) framework or Hong Kong’s Stock Connect program. Both methods have limits. Stock Connect only covers a limited number of businesses, and QFII caps the money flow through authorized routes.
CXMT will list on Shanghai’s STAR Market. This market has strict entry rules for local investors. Retail traders must keep at least 500,000 yuan (about $74,000) in qualifying assets. They also need a two-year trading history. This blocks many mainland buyers from pricing the company.
Perpetual futures skip all these account rules because the trader never receives the shares. The product began in crypto markets as a way to bet on assets like Bitcoin without owning them. It has no expiration date. Users usually post stablecoins as collateral, then take a long or short position based on where they think the price will go.
Now it covers more than tokens. Crypto exchanges list contracts tied to stocks, commodities, and private firms. Traders have used them to get early exposure to SpaceX and OpenAI before their public offerings. Chinese users have also used SpaceX contracts to bypass laws meant to stop money from leaving the country.
On Wednesday, TradeXYZ added a new Chinese chip contract. The new perp tracks GigaDevice Semiconductor (SSE: 603986) and gives ten-fold leverage. That means a small deposit can control a much larger position, but losses can grow as fast as gains.
CXMT’s crypto price runs far above Shanghai valuation
A pre-IPO perp trades on guesses about what a company may be worth once shares start public trading. A buyer profits when the listed stock opens above the derivative price. After the debut, a market data feed is expected to pull the contract closer to the live share price.
Theo’s chief investment officer, Iggy Ioppe, said the perp should match the underlying stock. Theo uses tokenized real-world assets. Since the contract never expires, traders can keep using it after the listing instead of closing on a fixed date.
The CXMT contract on Hyperliquid was trading near $6.35 per share on Thursday. It had reached $8.60 before dropping again. The suggested corporate value was close to $425 billion, or about 2.9 trillion yuan. That valuation would place CXMT above Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (SSE: 601398; HKEX: 1398). ICBC, the largest mainland-listed company, is worth about 2.56 trillion yuan.
The official IPO numbers are much lower. CXMT announced a first sale price of 8.66 yuan, or about $1.28 per share. This puts the chipmaker’s initial worth near 579 billion yuan. Even so, the sale would still be the biggest IPO on the STAR Market.
Hyperliquid allows users to trade futures linked to commodities, stocks, and cryptocurrencies without buying the underlying assets. Offshore demand pushed CXMT’s contract much higher than the Shanghai offer price because overseas investors cannot directly join the listing. So a second price is created on crypto rails before the official share is transferred.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: What are perpetual futures and how do they work for stocks like CXMT?
A1: Perpetual futures are contracts that let you bet on the price of an asset without owning it. They have no expiry date. You put up stablecoins as collateral and take a long or short position. For CXMT, these contracts trade on crypto exchanges, giving offshore investors a way to speculate on the chipmaker before its official stock listing in Shanghai.
Q2: Why are crypto exchanges used for Chinese stocks instead of regular markets?
A2: Because China has strict rules that block most foreign investors from directly buying Shanghai and Shenzhen stocks. Crypto exchanges bypass these rules. They list perpetual futures tied to Chinese chip companies, so offshore traders can bet on share values without needing to meet China’s account requirements or go through limited programs like Stock Connect.
Q3: Is the crypto price for CXMT different from its official IPO price?
A3: Yes. The crypto-based perpetual contract for CXMT trades much higher than the official IPO price. On Thursday, the contract was near $6.35 per share, while the official first sale price is only $1.28. This happens because offshore demand pushes the crypto price up, creating a separate valuation before the stock starts trading in Shanghai.
