VELVET Surges on Synthetic Pre-IPO Markets for SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic

The AI DeFi token VELVET surged over 1,400% in the week into June 12 after launching synthetic pre-IPO markets for SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic. This move was significant because retail traders have been unable to easily gain exposure to these private companies.

Velvet Capital is an AI-powered onchain trading and portfolio terminal that allows users to build, manage, and automate positions across multiple chains. The platform's headline feature is an AI copilot called Velvet Unicorn, which turns plain-language requests into onchain actions.

The synthetic markets offered by Velvet allow users to take leveraged onchain positions tracking the valuations of private companies that have not gone public. This move was driven by demand for exposure to SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic, but it also carries significant risk due to the speculative nature of synthetic pre-IPO markets.

The token's price corrected roughly 84% off its high before rebounding, highlighting the volatility of VELVET. The author cautions that this is a high-volatility, small-cap narrative token and should be treated as speculative capital that can be afforded to lose.