Lightspeed Tokenizing Private Markets: Inside the Rise of PreStocks | Xavier Ekkel
Apr 24, 2026
Xavier Ekkel, founder of PreStocks and ex-Canva software engineer with early DeFi experience, discusses tokenizing pre-IPO/private equity on-chain. He covers pricing and liquidity mechanics, Solana’s role in distribution and retail access, on-chain price discovery vs redemptions, IPO transitions and post-IPO supply dynamics, and plans to scale supply and integrations.
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Token Backing Doesn't Guarantee Stable Price
- PreStocks tokens are 1:1 backed but lack instant mint/redemption arbitrage, so on-chain prices can behave like prediction markets and sometimes trade as meme coins.
- A redemption is a fallback where underlying SPV assets are liquidated for USDC delivered on-chain to large sellers.
Live Token Trading Enables Real Time Price Discovery
- PreStocks' mark price is a weighted aggregation of external secondary sources, but those sources can be stale; live token trading provides real-time price discovery.
- Low on-chain supply can cause transient mispricings until supply and liquidity scale.
Choose Chains For Distribution Not Just Speed
- Prioritize distribution when choosing a blockchain; Solana was chosen because retail mindshare and native integrations maximize reach.
- Technical speed matters, but being where wallets and apps already have users drives adoption faster.