Hecto turns the largest private companies into public tokens

For many years, essentially the most invaluable expertise firms on the planet remained successfully inaccessible. Retail buyers confirmed up solely after IPOs, establishments traded publicity quietly by way of opaque secondary markets, and a small circle of insiders set valuations. The pre-IPO market itself developed slowly. Ultan Miller thinks that period is over.

As CEO of Hecto, and managing companion at FCA-regulated digital asset advisory agency Saxon, Miller sits on the crossroads of enterprise capital, crypto infrastructure, and institutional finance. He’s suggested greater than $300 million price of blockchain and fintech transactions, invested thousands and thousands of his personal capital into early-stage tech, and constructed firms on either side of the enterprise desk. Now, he’s aiming larger—actually redefining how the following technology of mega-cap firms is accessed, priced, and owned.

Hecto is constructing what it calls the world’s first tokenized pre-IPO index, launching on Canton, the institutional blockchain backed by a few of Wall Road’s largest names. Its inaugural product bundles publicity to seven of essentially the most highly effective personal firms on the planet—OpenAI, SpaceX, ByteDance, xAI, Stripe, Tether, and Anthropic—right into a single on-chain instrument.

In Miller’s framing, these aren’t unicorns and even decacorns. They’re “Hectocorns”: personal firms valued north of $100 billion that now outline an period of AI-driven, capital-intensive innovation.

The premise is straightforward however radical: if public markets as soon as informed the story of a technology, immediately’s defining firms are being constructed—and staying personal—lengthy earlier than an IPO ever arrives. Tokenization, Miller argues, is the lacking bridge.

So how do you flip seven of the world’s most secretive firms right into a single, investable token? And what occurs if the AI increase stumbles, {hardware} bets bitter, or SpaceX lastly goes public?

We sat down with Miller to unpack the mechanics, the macro thesis, and why Hecto believes the pre-IPO market is about to maneuver at web pace.

How does one launch a token that mixes seven Hectocorns?

Miller: Every token represents publicity to a basket of seven late-stage personal firms, with predefined weights, clear valuation methodology, and institutional-grade controls. Buyers mint the token by depositing capital right into a devoted vault, after which the protocol points a collection token whose worth tracks the aggregated efficiency of the underlying basket. Working on Canton allows privacy-preserving settlement, configurable permissioning, and compliance-ready workflows that aren’t possible on public blockchains.

Operationally, the token features as a programmable wrapper round diversified pre-IPO publicity, secured by Canton’s shared ledger and synchronisation layer. This strategy permits buyers to entry a number of high-growth personal firms by way of a single on-chain instrument, combining the pliability of tokenization with the authorized, operational, and risk-management requirements anticipated by institutional market members.

Is your group assured that an AI/tech bubble received’t burst in 26?

Miller: The group doesn’t imagine there’s a discrete AI or expertise “bubble” that’s destined to burst in 2026. The present cycle is considered much less as speculative extra and extra as a structural shift pushed by actual income progress, productiveness positive factors, and sustained institutional adoption throughout AI and superior expertise. From that perspective, volatility is feasible, however the underlying fundamentals don’t resemble previous bubble dynamics constructed purely on leverage or retail hypothesis. A possible IPO of SpaceX can be anticipated to inject significant liquidity into late-stage personal markets, enhancing value discovery and setting public-market benchmarks that may positively re-rate comparable firms.

On the macro aspect, the outlook assumes a supportive liquidity setting. Expectations of continued monetary-policy easing and potential U.S. Federal Reserve price cuts are traditionally favorable for long-duration and threat property. In parallel, mechanisms similar to Reserve Administration Purchases (RMP) successfully act as liquidity assist for the monetary system, even when not framed as conventional quantitative easing. Taken collectively, these elements underpin a view that the setting stays constructive for expertise and AI property, with out counting on the idea of an unsustainable bubble narrative.

Can firms be added to the token?

Miller: Sure. The index is designed to be dynamic, whereas remaining rules-based and clear. If a constituent similar to SpaceX exits the index following a liquidity occasion, the proceeds from that realization aren’t merely held idle. As a substitute, they’re directed right into a devoted liquidity pool used to purchase again the index token from the market, straight benefiting remaining holders and shutting the value-capture loop on the index degree.

Holders of the HECTO governance token vote on index composition adjustments in addition to the launching of latest indices. 

Concerning xAI: Critics and short-sellers argue that xAI’s heavy funding in GPUs (like Nvidia’s H100s) is a guess on {hardware} which will grow to be out of date inside 5 years, probably leaving the corporate with a stability sheet stuffed with quickly depreciating property. Is that this a priority? 

Miller: From Hecto’s perspective, this isn’t an idiosyncratic balance-sheet threat that the investor is being requested to underwrite straight. Hecto is designed as a passive index publicity, not a automobile for underwriting operational selections on the single-company degree. The target is to offer diversified entry to main AI and expertise firms, together with xAI, reasonably than to take a view on whether or not a selected GPU technology—similar to **NVIDIA**’s H100s—will depreciate sooner than anticipated.

On the index degree, heavy funding in compute is considered as a characteristic of the present AI infrastructure section reasonably than a pink flag. Capital depth and {hardware} refresh cycles are widespread throughout frontier AI gamers, and their financial worth is realized by way of deployed compute, software program leverage, and downstream monetization, not residual {hardware} worth. By structuring publicity as a basket reasonably than a single-name guess, Hecto permits buyers to take part within the sector’s upside whereas diluting company-specific execution dangers, together with these associated to {hardware} obsolescence.

What are the 2026 expectations of such a token? 

Miller: Expectations for 2026 are framed much less round short-term narratives and extra round macro circumstances. Our view is that markets are primarily pushed by world liquidity and U.S. Federal Reserve coverage, reasonably than by remoted sector-specific fears. A backdrop of easing monetary circumstances, declining coverage charges, and ongoing liquidity assist is traditionally constructive for high-quality risk-on property, significantly these with long-duration progress profiles.

Inside that setting, a diversified Hectocorn index token is predicted to learn disproportionately. Late-stage expertise and AI firms are inclined to re-rate when capital turns into extra plentiful and threat urge for food improves, whereas index building mitigates single-company volatility. In consequence, we see 2026 as a probably favorable interval for a passive, quality-filtered expertise index, assuming world liquidity stays supportive and coverage course continues to favor threat property.