If AI has been the most important theme in global capital markets over the past two years, then one of the most closely watched developments in 2026 may be the wave of AI companies moving toward the public markets. Recently, Anthropic has been widely regarded as one of the AI unicorns most likely to go public in the near future, while OpenAI’s potential path to the capital markets has also become a frequent topic of discussion. As the global IPO market regains momentum, investors are reassessing the value of high-growth companies, yet TradFi continues to control the most important gateways to capital and the dominant framework for valuation.

Many people focus on the wealth creation that these companies may generate after going public, but the question that truly matters to capital markets is much simpler: What are these companies actually worth? For a company like Anthropic, an IPO is not merely a fundraising event—it represents its first experience of being publicly priced by the global market. Once a company transitions from the private market to the public market, its value is no longer determined by a small group of investment firms. Instead, it is evaluated and validated collectively by investors around the world.

This is why every major IPO is about more than just a corporate growth story—it is also a reaffirmation of market pricing power. From the internet era to the mobile internet era and now the age of artificial intelligence, every technological revolution has ultimately relied on capital markets to achieve price discovery. And the institution responsible for facilitating that process has consistently been the mature financial system built by TradFi.

 

Many people think of TradFi simply as banks, brokerages, or stock exchanges. In reality, however, TradFi’s most important function is not financing—it is pricing.

Financing solves the problem of providing companies with capital. Pricing determines how the market views a company’s long-term value.

An AI company may achieve a valuation of hundreds of billions of dollars in the private market, but that valuation is still fundamentally the result of negotiations among a limited number of investors. Only after entering the public market does a company’s value undergo genuine scrutiny from global capital. Pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, mutual funds, and tens of millions of retail investors together form the mechanism of price discovery, allowing asset prices to evolve continuously through ongoing trading and consensus-building.

This capability is critical to the broader economy. The prices generated by capital markets influence not only a company’s fundraising ability but also the future allocation of resources across entire industries. When NVIDIA became one of the most valuable technology companies in the world, investors began reassessing the value of the entire AI supply chain. When Tesla achieved valuations far exceeding those of traditional automakers, the new energy sector attracted significantly more capital. In other words, public markets provide more than a numerical valuation—they determine which industries receive resources and which technologies gain opportunities for development.

That is the fundamental reason why TradFi has maintained pricing power within mainstream capital markets for so long.

 

Over the past few years, both the technology industry and the crypto sector have promoted the idea that innovative companies may not need traditional financial markets. During the rapid growth of Web3 and digital assets in particular, many believed that new fundraising models could bypass traditional capital structures and create an ecosystem independent of Wall Street.

Yet reality has moved in the opposite direction.

As markets mature, more innovative companies are actively embracing TradFi. The reason is straightforward: capital markets offer far more than capital—they provide the world’s most powerful value amplification mechanism. After completing an IPO, a company gains not only access to financing but also broader investor coverage, stronger brand recognition, greater transparency through disclosure requirements, and enhanced liquidity.

For large institutions, investment decisions often depend on regulatory frameworks, liquidity conditions, and risk management requirements. Public markets satisfy these conditions, making them the primary destination for long-term global capital. Companies such as Anthropic and Databricks are actively exploring opportunities in the capital markets, while SpaceX continues to be viewed as a potential IPO candidate.

What these companies are competing for is not merely the opportunity to raise money—it is entry into the global capital allocation system and the long-term pricing power that comes with it.

 

The same transformation is occurring within the crypto market.

Historically, the crypto industry has been driven largely by narratives. A new sector, a new blockchain, or even a trending meme could attract enormous attention within a short period of time. The market’s focus was the story rather than the underlying value.

As the industry matures, however, investors are beginning to focus on different metrics. Increasingly, they are paying attention to real user growth, protocol revenue, business models, and cash flow expansion. Metrics such as TVL, token issuance, and ecosystem incentives are now being supplemented by indicators such as revenue generation, product competitiveness, and user retention.

At its core, this shift reflects Crypto’s gradual convergence toward TradFi-style valuation principles.

The introduction of Bitcoin ETFs has accelerated this trend even further. Once Bitcoin formally entered the traditional financial system, institutions increasingly began analyzing BTC using frameworks traditionally applied to equities, gold, and macroeconomic assets. Market attention shifted from purely on-chain narratives toward factors such as U.S. dollar liquidity, Federal Reserve policy, risk appetite, and global asset allocation demand.

Bitcoin is increasingly being viewed as a global macro asset rather than merely a crypto-native trading instrument.

Meanwhile, the growth of stablecoins has reinforced this evolution. USDT and USDC are essentially extensions of the U.S. dollar-based financial system onto blockchain networks. At the same time, crypto companies such as Coinbase and Circle, after becoming publicly traded entities, have increasingly been evaluated using standards similar to those applied to traditional public companies.

In that sense, Crypto has not created a valuation framework entirely separate from TradFi. Instead, it is gradually integrating into the valuation structures already established by global capital markets.

 

As the boundaries between TradFi and Crypto continue to blur, demand for cross-market asset allocation is growing rapidly.

In the past, investors often needed to switch between multiple platforms to track stocks, ETFs, gold, foreign exchange markets, and crypto assets. As global capital markets become increasingly interconnected, multi-asset trading is emerging as a major trend.

BitMart TradFi was launched against this backdrop.

By integrating access to traditional financial assets—including stocks, index ETFs, precious metals, foreign exchange products, and selected commodities—users can track markets, screen assets, and make investment decisions across multiple asset classes within a unified platform environment.

For investors increasingly focused on global asset allocation, this means not only more investment opportunities but also a more comprehensive perspective on global capital flows.

From a longer-term perspective, this model reflects a broader shift in the evolution of trading platforms. Future competition will no longer be limited to competition among crypto exchanges. Instead, it will be competition among global digital financial platforms.

The platform that successfully connects both TradFi and Crypto may become a critical component of next-generation financial infrastructure.

 

On the surface, companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX appear to be competing for IPO opportunities. At a deeper level, however, they are competing for influence over the future of capital markets and the pricing power that comes with it.

In financial markets, the entities that gain market recognition attract more capital. And those that continue attracting capital are ultimately the ones capable of driving the next wave of innovation.

For Crypto, this signals the arrival of a new era.

Over the past several years, growth in the crypto sector has largely been fueled by narrative-driven momentum. Going forward, however, the industry’s development logic is likely to become increasingly aligned with that of global capital markets. Real demand, sustainable business models, revenue generation, and long-term value creation will gradually become the metrics that matter most.

TradFi contributes mature regulatory frameworks, global liquidity networks, and powerful pricing mechanisms. Crypto contributes more open financial architectures, more efficient value transfer systems, and continuous technological innovation.

In the years ahead, the key question may no longer be whether one replaces the other. Instead, it will be how effectively they can integrate.

As global capital continues to flow into digital assets, a new financial system—one that combines TradFi’s pricing power with Crypto’s innovative capabilities—is gradually taking shape.