With the spotlight cast by SpaceX's listing, investment products linked to OpenAI are diversifying within the pre-IPO (pre-public offering) token market, which is gearing up for its own public debuts. Experts point out that as investment options grow, investors must carefully evaluate the rights and settlement conditions of each product. For domestic investors, the access blocking of certain overseas exchanges handling these related products has emerged as a new variable.

According to cryptocurrency data aggregator CoinGecko on the 20th, there are five pre-IPO tokens linked to OpenAI, with a combined market capitalization estimated at approximately $72.2 million. Pre-IPO tokens are investment products designed to link to the valuation or stock performance of unlisted companies, allowing them to be traded in token form even before the company goes public. However, token holders do not become actual shareholders of the company, and the rights granted vary by product.

Investment options have expanded as Gate.io and Ondo Finance joined Republic, PreStocks, and Tessera in offering OpenAI-linked tokens. Gate.io launched trading for OpenAI-linked products in July, and Ondo Finance entered the market for unlisted company performance-linked investments this month. Strong subscription demand has also been confirmed. Bitget’s offering of Republic’s OpenAI product drew approximately 5,448 applicants who subscribed to about $120 million—roughly 5.7 times the actual sales volume of $21.08 million.

However, because product types vary, investors must compare not only whether OpenAI will go public, but also the trading and settlement conditions of each product. For instance, Ondo's product consists of unsecured debt issued by a separate issuer rather than OpenAI itself, making the issuer's solvency critical. Even if OpenAI goes public, settlement is not based on the initial public offering (IPO) price. Instead, the settlement price is determined by calculating the volume-weighted average price (VWAP) over the 10 trading days immediately following a six-month period after listing.

Tokenized stock products that assume the acquisition of actual shares are also affected by share allocation results. During the previous SpaceX listing, some exchanges accepted subscriptions to supply tokenized shares for trading post-listing, but ultimately had to issue refunds after failing to secure the underlying shares.

For domestic investors, restrictions on accessing overseas exchanges pose another variable. MEXC, which handled SpaceX pre-IPO tokens, and KuCoin, which listed OpenAI-linked perpetual futures, were included in domestic access-blocking decisions. The Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC), at the request of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the Financial Services Commission (FSC), decided to block domestic access to 27 websites of unregistered virtual asset service providers, including these exchanges. This follows previous measures restricting new installations and updates on domestic app markets, now extending to web access blocking.

The reason for the blocking is unregistered domestic business operations. Under the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information (Special Financial Transactions Act), even overseas entities are subject to reporting obligations if they conduct business targeting domestic residents, such as providing Korean-language websites or running promotional events to attract Korean customers.

Authorities plan to continue reviewing and blocking access to unregistered operations upon detection, without waiting for the confirmation of specific damages or investigation results. As they also plan to continuously monitor alternative websites operating under changed addresses, investors need to check whether the exchanges they use have completed domestic reporting and whether there is a possibility of access restrictions.

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