Bybit adds Unitree Robotics and Moonshot AI to growing pre-IPO perpetuals lineup

Bybit is turning its crypto exchange into something that looks increasingly like a shadow stock market. The platform has added pre-IPO perpetual contracts for Unitree Robotics and Moonshot AI, two private companies riding the AI and robotics hype cycles, to a TradFi perpetuals lineup that now exceeds 200 products.

The new contracts, UNITREEUSDT and MOONSHOTUSDT, are USDT-settled derivatives that give traders synthetic exposure to the estimated valuations of these firms before they list publicly. Neither Unitree Robotics nor Moonshot AI has endorsed or is affiliated with the contracts.

What Bybit is actually offering

Perpetual contracts are a crypto-native invention: futures with no expiration date. Traders can hold positions indefinitely, paying or receiving a funding rate to keep the contract price tethered to the underlying asset’s value. Bybit launched its TradFi perpetual contracts category in April 2026, and the roster has expanded rapidly since then.

The lineup now spans equities, ETFs, commodities, indices, and private companies. Adding pre-IPO names is the most aggressive move in that expansion because it means Bybit is facilitating price discovery for assets that don’t yet have a public market price.

Moonshot AI’s contract went live around August 7, 2026, with up to 10x leverage available. Unitree Robotics was introduced in the same wave of updates.

These are not tokenized equity. There’s no blockchain-native asset being traded. Bybit is creating derivative instruments that track the perceived valuation of private companies, settled entirely in the USDT stablecoin.

Why these two companies

Unitree Robotics has gained visibility for its work in robotics, particularly humanoid robots. Moonshot AI, developer of the Kimi AI assistant, has reportedly seen its valuation triple in recent months on the back of rising revenue.

The bigger picture for crypto exchanges

The 200-product milestone for Bybit’s TradFi lineup signals this isn’t a novelty feature anymore. Spanning equities, ETFs, commodities, and indices alongside these pre-IPO contracts, the exchange is building a synthetic version of multi-asset brokerage services, all denominated in crypto.

Pre-IPO valuations are inherently uncertain because there’s no public market establishing a consensus price. Add 10x leverage to an instrument tracking an opaque private valuation, and the potential for outsized losses grows considerably. Funding rates on perpetual contracts can also eat into positions during periods of one-sided positioning. The fact that these companies have no relationship with the contracts raises questions about the accuracy of the price feeds and the legitimacy of the price discovery process.

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