Crypto exchange lists Airbnb derivative contract ahead of IPO

Airbnb pre-IPO contracts are now available on FTX.

FTX, a crypto derivatives exchange, has added Airbnb to its list of stock offerings on the eve of the online rental marketplace’s highly-anticipated IPO. 

As of late Tuesday, cryptocurrency traders can gain exposure to Airbnb through a pre-IPO derivatives contract directly on FTX. As a pre-IPO product, the performance of the contract is linked to the market capitalization of Airbnb at the end of its first trading day.

FTX says these derivatives contracts “will automatically roll over to Fractional Stocks contracts” at the end of Airbnb’s first public trading day. The exchange adds:

If Airbnb stock does not list and trade publicly by March 9, 2021, FTX reserves the right to roll back trades on its ABNB product.

Currently, the derivatives contract is only available on the main FTX exchange. FTX US, which serves U.S.-based customers, has not listed the “ABNB/USD” pair. 

Trade volumes for ABNB/USD spiked early Wednesday. At the time of writing, over $244,000 had traded hands, according to TradingView data.

Airbnb’s stock is set to debut on the tech-heavy Nasdaq exchange Thursday following today’s public offering. The online rental marketplace recently increased its target price range to between $56 and $60 a share, up from $44 to $50, according to The Wall Street Journal. A $60 share price would give Airbnb a valuation of $42 billion.

The new price target would allow Airbnb to raise as much as $3 billion, making it one of the largest IPOs of 2020.

By Wednesday morning, the pre-IPO contract was trading at over $81 on FTX, up from an initial price of $60.

Launched in May 2019, FTX has emerged as one of the largest digital asset exchanges in the world. It’s currently ranked ninth in total volume, according to CoinMarketCap. On Messari, FTX is listed in the 13th spot, with reported trade volumes of more than $41 million as of Wednesday.

Airbnb isn’t the first stock to be listed on the exchange. Earlier this year, FTX announced live trading of Tesla, Amazon, Facebook and Nasdaq shares.

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