Unitree Robotics priced its Shanghai STAR Market initial public offering at 150.80 yuan per share, or about $22.37, valuing the humanoid-robot maker at roughly $9 billion. On Hyperliquid, the decentralized derivatives exchange, traders aren't waiting for the opening bell: pre-IPO perpetual contracts on Unitree have been changing hands between $92 and $94 per share, implying a valuation near $38 billion — more than four times the IPO price, according to CoinDesk.
The offering itself was extraordinarily well received on its own terms. Unitree's roughly $900 million raise was oversubscribed more than 8,000 times by retail investors, and the Shanghai Stock Exchange says the company's listing review, which began in March 2026 and secured final approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission in July, was the fastest full-cycle review in STAR Market history. Shares are expected to begin trading between August 17 and 21.
Why Traders Are Betting So Big
Unitree's underlying numbers help explain the enthusiasm. The Hangzhou-based company, founded in 2016, reported 2025 revenue of $253 million, up 335% year-over-year, and shipped 5,500 humanoid and quadruped robots. Combined open interest across Unitree's two Hyperliquid perpetual markets reached $9.1 million, with total turnover of roughly $59 million as traders positioned ahead of the debut. On the rival platform Trade.xyz, positioning is more balanced, with $6.5 million in long exposure against $6.6 million short.
A Premium That Cuts Both Ways
Allium analysts flagged the gap between the $22 IPO price and the $92-94 perpetual price as a source of acute liquidation risk once Unitree actually starts trading on the STAR Market. Their modeling shows the stock "can open at twice its IPO price and still liquidate a third of long exposure." A debut around $45 — still more than double the IPO price — would be enough to wipe out roughly 33% of long positions built on Hyperliquid's richer pricing. On the other side, a $128 opening would trigger liquidations across roughly 53% of short bets.
Sentiment isn't uniform across position sizes, either. Allium's data shows smaller traders — those with bets under $50,000 — skew heavily bearish, with 70% of that value positioned short, a signal that retail-sized accounts see the pre-IPO perpetual price as overextended even as larger positions lean long.
Related: Long Dollar Bets Hit $48 Billion, the Most Crowded Since 2015
A Test Case for Pre-IPO Perpetuals
The Unitree contracts are the latest example of crypto derivatives venues racing to list synthetic exposure to hot IPOs before shares are even tradable on a traditional exchange, a niche that has grown alongside Hyperliquid's rise as a venue for high-leverage, high-conviction bets. Because these markets trade on sentiment and scarcity rather than a live secondary market, the gap between perpetual pricing and the eventual listing price tends to compress sharply once real trading begins — which is exactly the dynamic Allium's liquidation modeling is trying to capture before Unitree's STAR Market debut settles the question for good.
