Reliance Jio IPO Draws $110 Billion Valuation From Crypto Traders

Crypto traders are valuing Jio Platforms at around $110 billion through a pre-IPO contract on Bitget, with the derivative trading near $12 on Thursday. That puts its price roughly 4% above the company’s maximum IPO offer price as subscriptions open for what is expected to be India’s largest public share sale.

The JIOUSDT perpetual contract on Bitget traded close to $12, while Jio Platforms has set its upper price limit at 1,119 rupees ($11.79) per share. Based on an estimated 9.21 billion shares outstanding after the offering, the company’s valuation at the top of the IPO range would reach approximately 10.3 trillion rupees, or $106 billion.

Jio Platforms is the telecommunications and digital services arm of Reliance Industries, one of India’s biggest conglomerates. Since launching its network in 2016, the company has become the country’s largest mobile operator by subscriber base.

Jio is seeking to raise about 302 billion rupees through the IPO. The offering would surpass Hyundai Motor India’s 279 billion-rupee listing in 2024, setting a new record for India’s largest IPO.

Crypto Traders Set an Early Price for Jio

Bitget listed the Jio-linked contract on Oct. 14. Since trading began, its price has ranged from $11.48 to $12.24. Total volume has reached around 369,000 JIO, worth approximately $4.4 million, providing an early market-based estimate of the company’s value before its shares begin trading publicly.

Other anticipated listings have also attracted activity on crypto platforms. Perpetual contracts linked to SpaceX (SPCX) and Cerebras (CBRS) traded on TradeXYZ, a platform operating on the Hyperliquid network, before their expected stock-market debuts.

These instruments allow traders to speculate on a company’s potential valuation ahead of its official listing. However, prices on crypto derivatives platforms are not always reliable indicators of the final IPO value.

SpaceX offers a recent example. Synthetic perpetual futures tied to the company traded between $162 and $165 on Hyperliquid and Binance, implying a valuation of approximately $2.2 trillion. The company’s official IPO valuation was nearly 20% lower, at $1.8 trillion.

How the Pre-IPO Contract Works

Pre-IPO perpetual futures let traders bet on price movements without an expiry date, even before a company’s shares are listed on a stock exchange. They provide exposure to price changes rather than actual ownership, so contract holders receive no shares, voting rights or dividends.

Traders use USDT, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, as collateral to take leveraged positions. Bitget says its contract pricing draws on publicly available information, including the announced IPO price range and final offering price.

The exchange plans to convert the Jio contract into a standard perpetual futures product once the company’s shares are listed. Until then, changes to the IPO price, a delay or a cancellation could cause significant swings in the contract’s value.