Gate is offering users subscription access to Moonshot AI, the Chinese AI lab behind the Kimi K3 model, through what the exchange describes as the industry's first dedicated Pre-IPO trading market. Subscriptions can be made using USDT or Gate's own GUSD stablecoin, with GUSD subscribers earning a 3.8% yield while they wait for allocation.
The offering lands at a striking moment for Moonshot AI. The company's valuation has climbed to roughly $35 billion after it raised $3.5 billion in a funding round following the July 2026 launch of Kimi K3, a 2.8-trillion-parameter open-weight model that reportedly topped coding benchmarks above offerings from both Anthropic and OpenAI. That marks a roughly eightfold jump from the company's approximately $4.3 billion valuation in December 2025, with a May 2026 round already lifting it to around $20 billion before the latest raise pushed it higher still.
Revenue growth behind the valuation jump
The valuation surge has real revenue behind it: Moonshot's annualized recurring revenue reportedly climbed from roughly $100 million in March 2026 to more than $300 million by June, a threefold increase in three months. The company is now said to be seeking another funding round at a $50 billion pre-money valuation ahead of a planned Hong Kong IPO, and its existing backers include Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan, IDG Capital and China Mobile, alongside a new lead investor in China's National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund.
What Pre-IPO access actually offers retail traders
Gate's Pre-IPO market gives retail crypto traders synthetic exposure to a private company's valuation trajectory before it lists publicly, a category of product that has expanded rapidly across exchanges this year as demand for exposure to high-profile private AI companies has outpaced the number of ways ordinary investors can actually access that exposure through traditional markets. Gate has not disclosed the specific terms of the subscription, including subscription caps, lock-up periods, or how allocation will be determined if demand exceeds the available pool.
