Unitree Robotics, a Hangzhou-based robot maker, is launching its initial public offering on Shanghai's STAR Market under ticker 688836, but most international investors cannot access the shares directly due to residency and account requirements. Instead, the crypto exchange MEXC is offering UNITREEUSDT, a perpetual futures contract that tracks Unitree's reference price in US dollars, allowing traders worldwide to bet on the company's stock price without holding actual shares or a mainland brokerage account.

What Is Unitree and Why Does Its IPO Matter?

Unitree was founded in 2016 by Wang Xingxing and has grown into one of the world's largest humanoid robot manufacturers. The company builds three product lines: quadruped robots (four-legged machines), humanoid robots including the popular G1 model priced at RMB 99,000 (roughly $13,700), and in-house components like motors, reducers, dexterous hands, and LiDAR sensors.

The company's scale is remarkable. Unitree has shipped more than 30,000 quadruped robots cumulatively and delivered over 5,500 humanoids in 2025 alone, the highest annual figure any manufacturer has publicly reported. In 2025, Unitree generated approximately RMB 1.7 billion in revenue (roughly $235 million) with net profit near RMB 280 million, and humanoid revenue overtook quadruped sales for the first time. The company's vertical integration strategy, manufacturing its own components, has pushed gross margins from 44% in 2023 to 60% in 2025.

Unitree is targeting RMB 4.202 billion (roughly $580 million) through the IPO by offering 40,446,434 new shares, representing 10% of share capital after the offering. Founder Wang Xingxing will maintain control through a weighted-voting-rights structure, holding 68.78% of voting power despite a smaller economic stake.

How Does the IPO Timeline Work, and What Are the Key Dates?

The Shanghai Stock Exchange accepted Unitree's application on March 20, 2026, and its listing committee approved it on June 1, 2026. The prospectus and issuance schedule followed on July 30, 2026. The IPO calendar is compressed: bookbuilding occurred on August 5, 2026, the issue price was announced on August 7, 2026, subscription opened on August 10 under code 787836, and payment settled on August 12, 2026.

Once Unitree begins trading on the STAR Market, the stock will trade without daily price limits for its first five sessions, creating potential for sharp moves. This repricing event poses specific risks for traders holding short positions in the MEXC futures contract, as the contract's reference price will shift from an estimate to an observable market price converted from Chinese yuan to US dollars.

How to Trade Unitree Stock Exposure Through MEXC Futures

• Going Long (Betting Price Rises): Fund your USDT-M futures account, open the UNITREEUSDT contract page, set your margin mode and leverage, choose your order type (limit or market), enter your position size, and click Open Long. Then set take-profit and stop-loss orders to manage risk.
• Going Short (Betting Price Falls): Follow the same steps but click Open Short instead. Note that short positions face funding payments that flow between longs and shorts depending on whether the contract trades above or below its reference price, and losses on shorts have no natural ceiling since prices can rise indefinitely.
• Understanding Leverage Risk: Leverage determines how far the price can move against you before your margin is depleted. At 10x leverage, a 10% price move wipes out your position. Calculate your liquidation price before opening any position, especially given the volatility expected around the IPO listing date.
• Notional Adjustment Risk: MEXC reserves the right to adjust the contract's notional value once actual share capital is confirmed after listing. This changes what one contract represents, so recheck your open positions if this occurs.

What Are the Specific Risks of Trading Pre-IPO Futures?

Trading UNITREEUSDT before Unitree's shares begin trading on the STAR Market carries distinct hazards. The contract's reference price must be estimated rather than observed, derived from an estimated valuation and share count that MEXC labels as "indicative". Two pricing gaps can open: one between the pre-listing implied price and the issue price announced on August 7, 2026, and another between that price and wherever the stock actually opens on the exchange.

Liquidity is another concern. A newly listed pre-IPO contract can have a thin order book and wide spreads, meaning slippage can exceed expectations when entering or exiting positions. MEXC also splits stock futures trading into regular hours and a low-liquidity period, during which index prices can pause, take-profit and stop-loss orders may go unfilled, and leverage on new orders can be cut.

Short positions face particular exposure. Holding a short into the issue-price announcement or the trading debut means facing a repricing event with no daily price limit attached, since STAR Market shares trade without limits for their first five sessions. This creates the potential for gap moves that could trigger liquidations before a trader can exit.

Why Can't International Investors Buy Unitree Shares Directly?

STAR Market shares are unavailable to most non-Chinese investors due to regulatory barriers. Mainland Chinese individuals face a minimum threshold of RMB 500,000 (roughly $69,000) in average account assets plus 24 months of trading experience to access the market. Before listing, there is no public market at all, making derivatives the only way for international traders to gain exposure.

The MEXC perpetual futures contract sidesteps these barriers by settling in USDT, eliminating the need for a mainland brokerage account, residency requirement, or account balance threshold. It also allows short exposure, which the underlying STAR Market does not offer to retail traders. This accessibility is why crypto exchanges have become the de facto gateway for global participation in Chinese IPOs.

Unitree's IPO represents a milestone for humanoid robotics as an investment category. With the company shipping more humanoids annually than any competitor and achieving profitability at scale, the market is watching whether Unitree's valuation and trading debut will set a benchmark for the broader robotics industry. For traders without mainland access, the MEXC futures contract offers exposure, but the pre-listing volatility and structural risks require careful position sizing and risk management.