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PretapeThe why behind pre-IPO prices
Methodology

Where every number comes from

Sources, formulas and rules behind prices, execution, the reference range, the research agent and trading on Pretape.

Last reviewed September 23, 2026

01Data sources and refresh

Every figure on the site comes from one of these sources. Nothing is typed in by hand.

DataSourceRefresh
Live token priceJupiter price API (routes across all Solana liquidity, including PreStocks' pool)5 seconds, streamed
Bid / ask for $1,000Jupiter swap quotes, both directions60 seconds
Supply, holders, volume, markPreStocks public API10 minutes
ChartsGeckoTerminal pool candles, or Pretape's own recording (see Prices)10 minutes
NewsResearch agent, news passEvery 3 hours
Deals, anchors, risksResearch agent, full passOnce a day
Reference range and verdictComputed in code from the anchors and the latest priceEvery 10 minutes

02Prices and charts

The headline price is the token's market price on Solana. Charts use candles from the deepest pool paired with SOL, USDC or USDT; pools paired with memecoins are ignored.

Indexed pools on thin tokens can drift far from where the token really trades. When the pool is more than 5% away from the market price, the chart switches to Pretape's own 10-minute recording of the Jupiter price and says so under the chart. A recorded point more than 25% away from PreStocks' own price is treated as a bad read and replaced with PreStocks' price, so single-quote spikes never reach the chart.

Premium          = token price / PreStocks mark - 1
Implied valuation = token price x implied share count

03Execution price

The market price is a reference, not a fill. Liquidity on pre-IPO tokens is thin, so every minute Pretape asks Jupiter what a real $1,000 buy and sell would fill at. That gives an executable bid and ask per token, used in the trade panel.

WhereRule
Trade panelYour quote is the actual price for your size. When it is more than 10% away from the reference price, the panel says so and asks for a second, explicit confirmation

04Valuation anchors and the reference range

Private companies have no earnings calls or public order book. The only hard references are prices someone actually paid or quoted. Pretape collects them as anchors: the latest primary round, tender offers, secondary marketplace prices reported in the press, pre-IPO perpetual futures, reported valuation talks and the PreStocks mark.

Each anchor is a company valuation. It is converted to a price per token with the share count implied by PreStocks' public data: the implied valuation PreStocks publishes for the token, divided by the token price.

shares           = PreStocks implied valuation / token price
anchor per token = anchor valuation / shares
token premium    = token price / anchor per token - 1
reference range  = [ min, max ] of current anchors per token

Worked example (illustrative numbers)

StepValue
Token at $600 with a $1.00T implied valuationshares = 1.667B
Secondary quote at a $1.20T valuation$1.20T / 1.667B = $720 per token
Token premium against that quote600 / 720 - 1 = -17%

Rules that keep the range honest:

  • Superseded. A newer primary round retires older anchors. They stay visible in the table but stop counting.
  • Context. Real deals that are not current anchors appear in the Valuation tab for history and never move the range.
  • No duplicates. Anchors of the same type within 1% in value and 5 days in date count once.
  • Enough references. A range needs at least three current anchors spanning 10% or more. With fewer, the page lists the references without a range.
  • Position. The token is above or below the range only when it is more than 3% outside it; near the top or near the floor means the top or bottom 20%.

All arithmetic runs in code, never in a language model. The one-line fair value verdict on each company page is generated from these numbers.

05The PreStocks mark

The mark is PreStocks' own reference price for each company's shares in private secondary markets, converted to a price per token. PreStocks sets and publishes it; Pretape reads it from PreStocks' public data and uses it as one anchor in the reference range and as the basis for the Premium. For how the mark is calculated, see PreStocks.

06Research agent

A Claude-based research agent with web search covers each company on two schedules: a news pass every 3 hours and a full pass once a day that also refreshes deals, valuation anchors and risks. It works from a fixed brief and returns structured data, not prose.

CheckWhat happens
Source requiredEvery news item, deal, anchor and risk must carry a date and a link the agent actually opened
Date checkInvalid or future dates are dropped
Link checkLinks that do not resolve are dropped. Paywalls that block bots are kept
Source qualityPrimary sources and top-tier outlets preferred. Crypto exchange blogs and low-quality aggregators are blocked
No repeatsItems already published are not added again

Stances. Bullish, bearish and neutral describe the likely effect of a story on the company's valuation. They are not recommendations to buy or sell the token.

Today's read is the agent's overall view of the company. It is built to be stable: a news pass can only change the stance when a new story points the same way, and a full daily pass re-evaluates it from scratch. A pass that finds nothing new keeps the previous read.

New since your last visit. Each story records when Pretape first saw it. Your browser remembers when you last visited, and stories found since then are tagged NEW. Nothing is sent to a server.

07Trading

Logging in creates a Solana wallet for you through Privy, tied to your account. Its keys are secured by Privy and Pretape never sees them. At login you grant Pretape a signing permission so trades go through without a wallet pop-up. The server uses it only for the swaps and withdrawals you request.

Orders route through Jupiter across all Solana liquidity, including PreStocks' pool. The swap and the fee settle in one transaction: either both happen or neither does, and if the price moves past your slippage tolerance the whole transaction reverts.

ItemTerms
Trading fee0.1%. On buys, taken from the USDC you pay. On sells, from the proceeds
Network feesPaid by Pretape, including opening token accounts. You never need SOL
Slippage tolerance1%. The minimum you receive is shown before you confirm
Order size$5 minimum, $5,000 maximum
Daily limit30 trades per account
DepositsUSDC on Solana to your wallet address
WithdrawalsUSDC to any Solana address. $5 minimum, $1 fee, one per day

08Limitations

  • PreStocks tokens give economic exposure to private shares through a special purpose vehicle. Several of these companies have said they do not recognize unauthorized secondary transfers; each company page lists this under Risks when it applies.
  • Private-market prices are sparse and can be weeks old. A reference range is only as good as its most recent anchor.
  • The research agent can miss stories or misjudge a stance. Every item links to its source so you can check it.
  • Liquidity is thin. Large orders can fill well away from the displayed price; use the quote, not the headline price.
  • Pretape is information and a trading interface, not investment advice.

09Glossary

Anchor
Prices someone actually paid or quoted for the company: funding rounds, tender offers, secondary trades and perps.
Context
A real transaction in the company's shares that is not one of the current anchors. Shown for history, it does not move the reference range.
Implied valuation
Token price times the company's share count: what the whole company would be worth at this token price.
PreStocks mark
PreStocks' reference price for the company's shares in private secondary markets, set by PreStocks.
Reference range
From the lowest to the highest current reference price: last funding round, secondary markets, perps and the PreStocks mark.
Superseded
Older than the latest funding round, so it no longer counts toward the reference range.
Premium
How much the token trades above (+) or below (-) the PreStocks mark, its reference price for the same shares in private secondary markets.

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