Global investors use “perp” bets to chase China tech stocks like Unitree
Global investors are increasingly using perpetual futures, highly leveraged derivatives without expiration dates, to gain exposure to Chinese technology stocks. This trend is driven by the global surge in AI hype, allowing international traders to speculate on asset prices without direct ownership. Perpetual futures, which gained popularity in cryptocurrency markets, are now being linked to real-world assets like stocks, providing a workaround for investors outside China to access IPOs of companies such as humanoid robot maker Unitree Robotics and memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT). Trading volume for real-world asset perps exploded to USD 1.4 trillion in the first half of this year, up from USD 23.6 billion in the first six months of 2025, reflecting significant investor interest.
The surge in perpetual futures trading for Chinese tech stocks like Unitree Robotics and CXMT highlights a growing appetite among international investors to bypass traditional market access limitations. These derivatives allow for highly leveraged bets on pre-IPO valuations, as seen with Unitree's perp contracts surging four times its listing price before the actual shares debuted. This mechanism provides a crucial avenue for retail investors and smaller institutional pools in the Asia Pacific region, particularly those without direct Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) access, to participate in the Chinese tech boom. However, the market for perpetual futures remains largely unregulated, dominated by retail traders comfortable with crypto markets. This lack of oversight, combined with high leverage, introduces significant volatility and liquidation risks. While perps offer borderless, 24/7 trading and access to assets otherwise unavailable, their speculative nature means they amplify existing market manias rather than creating them, as observed with Unitree's 8,000-times oversubscription by retail investors. The thing to watch is how regulators in markets like Hong Kong and Singapore, where only accredited investors can trade perps, will address the escalating trading volumes and associated risks.
