How a hundred-billion-level market reshapes the Web3 asset starting line

Recently, Huobi HTX’s dedicated research department HTX Research published the latest report “Pre-Market Asset Trading Ecosystem: Mechanism Evolution, Market Structure, and Future Trends Behind the Hundred-Billion Scale,” systematically studying the formation background, asset structure, typical models, and their profound impact on project issuance and exchange systems within the crypto market.

The report focuses on an accelerating emerging trend: in the context of tightening financing environments and extended token issuance cycles, trading activities before TGE are evolving from scattered attempts into a “1.5 level market” connecting primary and secondary markets, gradually becoming an independent market layer in the crypto industry that cannot be ignored.

From “Vacuum Period Before Token Issuance” to Pre-Market: A New Structure Between Primary and Secondary Markets

HTX Research points out that the rise of the pre-market trading ecosystem is no coincidence. As primary financing contracts and project issuance cycles lengthen passively, project teams begin to maintain community engagement through points, airdrop expectations, testing qualifications, and other methods, while users continue to invest time and funds before TGE. During this process, originally non-tradable “early contributions” and “future expectations” gradually acquire assetization conditions.

Meanwhile, the thresholds for token issuance decrease, and the number of projects surges, making attention a scarce resource. Pre-market trading mechanisms centered around attention, expectations, and future rights have begun to grow naturally, forming an intermediate market that previously only existed within VCs and exchanges. This is a forming 1.5 level market (Pre-Market), whose role is no longer just a speculative tool but a key structure reshaping project launches and early liquidity.

Three Asset Structures Composing the Pre-Market Trading Ecosystem

Starting from the “anchoring method of future value,” HTX Research categorizes pre-market assets into three types:

The first type revolves around the future token value, with trading modes mainly including pre-market OTC, pre-market spot, and pre-market perpetual contracts. These assets are most directly linked to future spot prices and bear the most concentrated price discovery function in the pre-market stage.

The second type centers on points systems, i.e., user behavior points and their financial derivatives. Currently, a standardized points OTC market has gradually formed. Points carry user contributions and incentive expectations in airdrop economics, and through trading and收益拆分 mechanisms, are incorporated into market pricing in advance.

The third type focuses on future exchangeable rights, appearing in forms such as NFTs, qualification certificates, or BuildKey, converting whitelist, Early Access, token quotas, and other non-standard rights into tradable assets.

These three structures collectively cover the complete chain from “user contribution—market expectation—rights confirmation—final settlement,” making the pre-market not just a single-point tool but a multi-layered pre-trading system.

Practical Exploration of Huobi HTX Pre-Market Perpetual Contracts

With expanding market demand and ecosystem maturity, pre-market trading is extending from OTC and spot forms to derivatives structures. Pre-market perpetual contracts, as an innovative derivative design, allow users to leverage and speculate around future spot prices before tokens are officially launched, further advancing price discovery. Currently, pre-market perpetual contracts have become one of the most traded pre-market modes.

In this direction, Huobi HTX previously launched the WLFI (World Liberty Financial) pre-market perpetual contract trading ahead of the project’s highly anticipated market debut this year, providing users with tools for early participation in price speculation and risk management before TGE. This practice also reflects the trend pointed out in the report: the role of exchanges is extending from “listing nodes” to “pre-issuance stages,” with pre-market trading becoming an important part of the exchange product ecosystem.

Scale Potential and Structural Challenges of the Pre-Market

Pre-market trading already has a clear scale foundation. Leading projects often generate hundreds of millions of dollars in trading demand during the pre-market phase. The cumulative pre-market trading volume of projects like WLFI and Monad can even surpass one billion dollars, making pre-market a hundred-billion-level market with further growth potential.

However, at the same time, the pre-market also exposes clear structural risks: liquidity is inherently thin, prices can be easily manipulated by large funds; settlement heavily depends on project teams, and information asymmetry persists long-term; different asset forms lack unified standards in rules, performance, and risk distribution. These issues determine that further expansion of the pre-market depends on whether it can evolve from an “opportunity-driven market” into a more institutionalized and collaboratively governed structure.

Conclusion

HTX Research believes that pre-market trading is not a short-term hype but a structural trend driven by changes in financing environments, evolving user participation methods, and the extension of trading platform products. It is reshaping project issuance paths, exchange listing logic, and user engagement in early markets.

In this process, pre-market trading is gradually evolving from the “gray area before issuance” into a key foundational layer connecting primary and secondary markets. Its ultimate form may become a long-term, institutionalized core market structure within the crypto industry.

About HTX Research

HTX Research is Huobi HTX’s exclusive research department, responsible for in-depth analysis of cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology, and emerging market trends, producing comprehensive reports and providing professional assessments. HTX Research is committed to delivering data-driven insights and strategic foresight, playing a key role in shaping industry perspectives and supporting informed decision-making in the digital asset space. With rigorous research methods and cutting-edge data analysis, HTX Research remains at the forefront of innovation, leading industry thought and fostering a deeper understanding of the ever-changing market dynamics. Visit us.

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