💰 The $2 Trillion IPO class of 2026

PLUS: AI giants edge toward public markets as tokenized equities, crypto tax rules, security risks, and on-chain liquidity quietly reshape how capital will move in 2026.

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Cryptopolitan News
January 02, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

The $2 Trillion IPO class of 2026

Open AI. SpaceX. Anthropic.

This year, three of the world’s most powerful private companies are preparing to go public in rapid succession. .

All three are far along in “legal prep,” investor talks, and board reshuffling, according to multiple insiders: the pre-listing playbook.

  • SpaceX is hoping for a valuation of more than $800 billion, which would make it the largest in history after Saudi Aramco's $29 billion IPO in 2019.

  • OpenAI is in preliminary discussions to raise more funding and boost its private valuation to between $500 billion and $750 billion via an IPO that could ultimately raise tens of billions.

  • Anthropic, backed by Amazon and Google, is assembling its legal team for a listing that might exceed $300 billion.

That’s more than $2 trillion in overall market cap. On a scale large enough to challenge the gross domestic product of most countries. Enough to transform public markets in a single night.

VCs, bankers, and lawyers are circling.

This is not just about shares listing. It’s about liquidity. And the kind of liquidity that could launch a new investment supercycle – around AI, around public equities, and especially onchain markets.

Institutions such as Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Alphabet, Khosla Ventures, and dozens of elite investors are already lining up for what could be some of the biggest exits of this decade.

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I can’t recall a crop like this. Three private companies that would rank among the largest public market caps in the world.”

said Peter HĂŠbert of Lux Capital.

Why this matters for crypto

This wave isn’t isolated.

Each AI boom seeps into other narratives, crypto most of all. And as prediction market trading, tokenized equities, and synthetic exposure pick up steam, these listings may also spark a movement to build AI-public markets bridges on-chain.

The likes of Polymarket, Xstocks, and DeFi-synthetics platforms will be watching closely. So will tokenized asset plays gambling on IPO access and fractional exposure.

Cryptopolitan’s take

Put aside the L2 vs L1 debate for a moment.

The true tech story of 2026 may be a question of who’s the one to go public and when.

And for all the sideline crypto watchers out there, here’s the question:

If the most powerful companies in A.I. go public this year, what do you want your exposure to be?

POLL: Which IPO are you looking forward to?

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📊 Market Watch

📈 Hong Kong’s AI IPO surge begins with Biren

A surge of mainland Chinese companies that specialize in artificial intelligence are headed to the public markets.

Biren Technology surged by almost 80% on its first day of trading in Hong Kong on Monday, in the biggest debut for a company since last year and highlighting investors’ appetite for AI chips being made in China.

Its $717M IPO was 2,300x oversubscribed by retail buyers.

🛑 Kraken’s dark web panic

Rumours that access to an internal Kraken support panel is for sale on the dark web for $1 have set off a stir.

Although the breach is unconfirmed, the listing indicates that KYC documents and transaction details were accessed.

This mirrors 2025’s Coinbase breach in which malicious attackers bribed the agents to secure access to data. Kraken and Binance are saying their own internal controls prevented similar leaks, but the customer support layer of crypto remains a weak link.

⚖️ Global crypto tax net tightens

Crypto platforms across 48 countries have begun collecting user data ahead of the OECD’s global tax reporting framework (CARF), which takes full effect in 2027.

UK, EU, Asian and now American exchanges must log wallet activity, trades and profits today. The UK has already begun, as is evident by HMRC ordering crypto platforms to provide records on their customers. No longer hiding in the shadows of DeFi, 2026 could be the year of total tax transparency.

 đŸ‘€ Are you watching this?

Behind the scenes, Monad has quietly scaled to an all-time high of $251M TVL and flagship app Upshift currently commands a $476M liquidity vault.

With 14% of MON in staking and Monad doubling down on app-driven growth over bidding for validator rewards some are betting this L1 comeback could stick. But in a market still shaky post-holidays, it’s anyone’s guess whether MON is leading or lagging the next DeFi wave.

 đŸĽ Top tweets

🎭 Culture Watch

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong unveiled a 2026 roadmap prioritizing an “everything” financial app spanning crypto, equities, payments, and onchain services.

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