TL;DR:
- Backpack will partner with Superstate to offer onchain IPO allocations, opening a waitlist for official shares with direct Solana ownership.
- Superstate’s Opening Bell, via an SEC-registered transfer agent, tokenizes actual legal shares on Solana and Ethereum and logs holders on an official registry.
- Ferrante says access depends on active users. Backpack raised $17M in 2024, is in $50M talks at $1B pre-money, and plans a token without dumping on retail.
Backpack, the crypto exchange founded by former FTX employees, says it will roll out onchain access to IPO share allocations by pairing tokenized equities with a traditional issuance process. CEO Armani Ferrante said the firm is working with Superstate to “become a stop on the roadshow,” enabling users to buy official IPO shares with real, direct ownership on Solana. A waitlist opened Wednesday, and the pitch is aimed at customers who usually must wait until public stock trading begins through a brokerage. The initiative lands as tokenization narratives expand. Backpack frames this as earlier access.
introducing the next Backpack token utility, we'll be building out this year. IPOs, on chain, directly on Backpack.
Normally when companies go public, the founders and executives go on a roadshow, sharing their story and garnering interest from Wall Street institutional buyers… https://t.co/pDU1OymEBl
— Armani Ferrante (@armaniferrante) March 4, 2026
Tokenized roadshow access and the business model
Ferrante described the roadshow as the pre-IPO phase where founders and executives pitch institutions that buy shares before listing. The twist is distribution: Superstate’s Opening Bell platform runs an SEC-registered transfer agent that can natively tokenize assets by issuing actual legal shares as native tokens on Solana and Ethereum. Opening Bell also records token ownership on an official shareholder registry, preserving stockholder rights and tracking allocations. In Backpack’s model, the tokenized representation is the share, not a synthetic derivative, so the onchain rail becomes the access layer. That keeps settlement programmable while ownership stays recognized.
The announcement arrives amid a broader tokenization sprint, with large crypto exchanges including Binance and Coinbase expanding into equities and competing with web-native brokers such as Robinhood. Backpack is trying to differentiate by embedding itself earlier in capital formation, not only at secondary trading. Ferrante warned there is a “catch” tied to user quality and activity: the more active and valuable Backpack’s users are, the more viable it is as a venue during an IPO roadshow. That framing turns the waitlist into a demand signal and a selection filter for issuers and for issuer diligence.
Backpack is also tightening its own funding story. The company raised $17 million in Series A financing in 2024 led by Placeholder VC, with other backers including Robot Ventures, the fund associated with Superstate founder Robert Leshner. Axios reported last month that Backpack is in talks to raise $50 million at a $1 billion pre-money valuation. Alongside the equity roadmap, Ferrante said the startup wants to launch an exchange token without “dumping on retail,” using pre-IPO access and a post-IPO treasury allocation as the value proposition. This aims to align incentives for users and issuers.
