Crypto Traders Value Reliance Jio's IPO at About $110 Billion

Crypto traders are already pricing India's largest-ever IPO. A Bitget perpetual contract tied to Jio Platforms traded near $12 on Thursday, implying a valuation of about $110 billion, a 3.8% premium to the roughly $106 billion implied by the offering's upper price band, according to CoinDesk.

The JIOUSDT contract launched on Oct. 14 and has traded between $11.48 and $12.24. Volume totals about 369,000 JIO, or roughly $4.4 million, giving the market a live reference price before the shares list. The company set a maximum price of 1,119 rupees ($11.79) per share and expects about 9.21 billion shares outstanding after the sale, valuing it at up to around 10.3 trillion rupees.

What is being sold

Jio Platforms is the telecom and digital arm of Reliance Industries. Its Jio network started in 2016 and is now the largest mobile operator in India by subscribers. The IPO aims to raise about 302 billion rupees, overtaking Hyundai Motor India's 279 billion-rupee offering in 2024. The three-day public subscription is currently open.

Limits of a pre-IPO contract

The product is a perpetual future: a leveraged bet on price with no expiry. Holders receive no shares, voting rights or dividends, and traders post USDT as collateral. Bitget says the contract is based on publicly available information, such as announced price ranges or the final offering price, and will convert into a standard perpetual once the shares list.

Such markets are not always accurate. Ahead of SpaceX's debut, synthetic perpetuals on Hyperliquid and Binance traded around $162-$165, implying $2.2 trillion, while the official IPO valuation came in almost 20% lower at $1.8 trillion. Perpetuals on SpaceX and Cerebras also traded on TradeXYZ, a platform on Hyperliquid.

For investors, the Jio contract is a sentiment gauge rather than a substitute for the shares. If the IPO is delayed, repriced or canceled, the contract could move sharply. The real test comes when Jio begins trading publicly and the market price can be compared with the crypto-derived estimate.