HTX Research, the dedicated research arm of leading global crypto exchange HTX, has released a new report titled The Pre-Market Asset Trading Ecosystem: Mechanism Evolution, Market Structure, and Future Trends Behind Its Multi-Billion Scale. The report provides a systematic analysis of how pre-market trading has emerged, how different asset structures function before a Token Generation Event (TGE), and how this ecosystem is reshaping project launches and exchange listing pathways. 

The study focuses on a trend that is becoming increasingly visible across the crypto industry: as fundraising becomes more difficult and token issuance timelines stretch out, trading activity before TGE is evolving from fragmented experimentation into a distinct "1.5-level market" sitting between the primary and secondary markets.

According to the report, the rise of the pre-market ecosystem is closely tied to structural shifts following the market downturn that began in late 2022. With primary market funding tightening and issuance cycles extending, many projects turned to points systems, airdrop expectations, testing access, and early participation programs to sustain operations and community engagement before launching a token.

At the same time, issuance costs fell and token creation tools lowered barriers dramatically, leading to a surge in the number of new tokens and a constant dilution of market attention. In this environment, attention itself became a scarce resource. Pre-market trading mechanisms—built around future value, expectations, and redeemable rights—naturally emerged, forming an "in-between layer" that previously existed largely behind closed doors between venture funds and exchanges. This layer is now widely referred to as the Pre-Market, or the 1.5-level market.