AI vs Cryptocurrency: Which Track Offers More Pre-IPO Investment Opportunities?

In 2026, the capital markets are playing out an unprecedented tug-of-war. On one side are the unicorns in the Generative AI (GAI, Generative AI) industry, armed with huge funding rounds and continuously pushing valuation ceilings higher. On the other side are the compliance powerhouses in the crypto industry, which are gradually moving to strike at Nasdaq, attempting to embed blockchain finance into Wall Street’s mainboard narrative. For discerning investors, Pre-IPOs (pre-IPO investments) have long been a key window for capturing index-level returns. So at this point in time, is the explosion of technological change driven by AI large models (Large Model) the more explosive force, or are the infrastructure foundations of Web3 and blockchain finance more certain?

AI Track: A Wave of Unicorn Listings Is Arriving—High Valuations and Tech Bubbles Coexist

Since spring 2026, China’s domestic AI large-model track has entered a highly emblematic phase of capital-market competition. Under the dual pressures of both open-source and commercialization, top companies have been accelerating their push for IPOs in Hong Kong.

1. Leading Players Race to List in Hong Kong

In early May, AI enthusiasm in the Hong Kong market has kept heating up, and the most clearly defined is the listing timeline of Leapstar. According to public filings, Leapstar plans to submit its listing application to the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) before June 30, with expected cornerstone pricing of around $10 billion. Before that, Zhipu AI had, in early January 2026, successively listed in Hong Kong along with MiniMax, another unicorn in the industry, successfully kicking off this round of large-model capitalization. The one drawing the most attention is Moon’s Dark Side. Although its founder said earlier in the year that it was “not aiming to go public,” by the end of March 2026 the market’s direction had shifted abruptly, and the company quietly launched a Pre-IPO round of nearly $1 billion; its post-investment valuation surged to $18 billion.

2. Why Does AI Have to Rush to Go Public?

The long-term development of the large-model industry cannot escape high capital consumption (such as repeated computation costs involved in producing outputs for users). Faced with ever-rising R&D costs and uncertainty, going public often carries a survival imperative. In terms of valuation logic, OpenAI is the most representative reference sample: the company’s revenue in 2025 was about $13 billion, yet net losses still remain. By comparison, in 2026, the revenue growth of leading domestic companies also needs to be verified through going public. Meanwhile, risk appetite differs between the primary and secondary markets: entrepreneurs holding high-profile valuations need to seize the window while market funding still resonates.

3. Investment Opportunities and Risks in the AI Track

For investors focused on Pre-IPO rounds, this is both a window for anchoring valuations and a period to watch tail-end uncertainty. On one hand, in the B+ round Pre-IPO stage, Leapstar’s first batch had a pre-investment valuation of $4 billion, while a second batch plans to raise it to $5 - $6 billion—this price range is relatively ideal for participants at different stages. On the other hand, the industry has already raised concerns about a “listing is the peak” trajectory. For example, although Zhipu opened sharply on its first listing day earlier in the year, its intraday gains narrowed and it even dipped below the issue price at one point—reminding the market to take a practical view of the short-term pullback pressure under hot concepts.

Crypto Track: Traditional Finance Giants Enter—Compliance Infrastructure Winners Take All

From 2025 to 2026, the IPO landscape in the crypto industry showed a clear trend toward “mainboard-ization”: shifting from the early frenzy of the coin world to stricter compliance governance. Its price-to-earnings multiples and revenue models are more closely aligned with traditional finance, showing a relatively stable growth pattern.

1. Exchanges and Wallets—Mainstream Targets Move First to Take the Nasdaq Stage

As of May 2026, the overall macro environment for the crypto market has shown signs of bottoming out and rebounding. During this phase, Bitcoin repeatedly held its ground and broke upward through the $80,000 mark. As of May 7, the BTC price had pulled back to around $81,000 and fluctuated; earlier that day it briefly reached $82,000, setting a three-month high. After pioneers such as Coinbase and BitGo, the exchange Kraken plans to complete its listing in the first half of 2026. Kraken completed an $800 million Pre-IPO financing in November 2025, reaching a valuation of $20 billion. On its investor roster, names such as Citadel Securities and Jane Street—traditional financial giants—are clearly listed. In addition, the wallet ecosystem Consensys is also preparing for a listing in close coordination with investment banks, deeply binding to the core ecosystem of Ethereum (ETH). From ETF (exchange-traded fund) fund-flow data, spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted about $2 billion in additional net inflows in April. Crypto infrastructure is attracting compliant capital back into the sidelines with low fees and high liquidity, injecting certainty for the capital to follow after relevant IPOs.

2. On-Chain Pre-IPO Trades and the Rise of Tokenization

Beyond traditional IPOs, in May the crypto track further evolved into more variants—namely, tokenized Pre-IPO trades. Using blockchain technology, platforms such as Robinhood have already provided tokenized trading of unlisted company equity to certain regional users. Although OpenAI has expressed concerns about these “unsupported tokens,” the discussions they trigger about property rights, valuation, and secondary-market liquidity still have long-lasting impact. Furthermore, from the micro-model of “Pre-IPO” logic in private fundraising to its appearance on Launchpad, that concept has already been deeply embedded. For example, rumors about Kraken’s listing and multiple RWA (real-world assets) private rounds show that early institutions often enter at costs well below 1 cent. After listing on mainstream exchanges like Gate.io, their market caps often jump significantly.

3. Risks and Macro Pressures in the Crypto Track

Although the crypto industry attracts a large number of professional asset managers, currency-end volatility cannot be ignored. On May 7, Federal Reserve officials publicly issued hawkish remarks, pointing out that inflation risks have warmed up again and that further rate hikes are not ruled out—this creates some pressure for capital outflows around Bitcoin’s $81,000 integer level. Meanwhile, Zcash surged by more than 40% on May 6, at one point touching $600, showing that sharp price fluctuations still occur for small-cap coins. Also, parts of the Hong Kong listed stock track are influencing global preferences for the flow of emerging assets. Therefore, participating in such investments requires penetrating the real business support behind the underlying targets.

Side-by-Side Comparison: AI Looks More Like Growth Stocks; Crypto Looks More Like Value-Transformation Stocks

For Pre-IPOs investments, the clear logical differences behind the AI and crypto tracks can be observed. The AI track relies more on technological iteration and revenue multiples to obtain high valuations—similar to buying growth stock options. In contrast, the core listed targets in the crypto track are mainly exchanges, asset-management firms, or infrastructure-type companies, with extremely stable revenues (such as trading fees and custody fees). The major mainstream events in this cycle are more like the realization of a compliance premium, with expectations of mid-term cash returns. Therefore, for allocation decisions, the suggestion is that users choose according to their own defensive preferences: those who continue to look favorably at AI’s explosive user-interaction potential can focus on Pre-IPO shares of unicorns such as Leapstar. For users who favor stable business models, they can focus on on-chain equity mapping of companies such as Kraken and Ledger, or on locking in token quotas in advance.

Summary

AI and crypto—currently the two most dynamic new tracks in the capital markets—both have core growth elements and substantial room for valuation increases. The AI track is advancing through dense, marathon-style business validation, and leading companies often have an early-mover valuation premium. Meanwhile, in the crypto track, core infrastructure companies are facing opportunities for performance reversal driven by long-term compliance. For investors, a good strategy is to maintain a “two-sided allocation” mindset: at a scarce layout node like Pre-IPOs, capture differentiated time windows across different tracks. But no matter which trajectory it is, true returns often come from a deep understanding of industry trends and left-side risk anticipation. Keep an eye on Gate’s latest updates—we will provide, as soon as possible, the newest industry analysis and the best entry channels for early participants investing in Pre-IPOs in the Innovation Zone.