Well, they aren't shares. You're buying essentially a promise from Republic that they will pay you back what the shares are worth when any liquidity event happens (ie an IPO, or a new round of funding). You have a risk that Republic doesn't have enough money to cover this value (because they don't promise to actually have those shares).
So it's a purchase agreement (ie a forward/future.) It's not that weird, people trade equity futures all the time.
Not that I'm defending them, doing that with a company that hasn't IPO'd yet is kind of insane although maybe they're hedging with DXYZ or some kind of private equity.
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Well, they aren't shares. You're buying essentially a promise from Republic that they will pay you back what the shares are worth when any liquidity event happens (ie an IPO, or a new round of funding). You have a risk that Republic doesn't have enough money to cover this value (because they don't promise to actually have those shares).
So it's a purchase agreement (ie a forward/future.) It's not that weird, people trade equity futures all the time.
Not that I'm defending them, doing that with a company that hasn't IPO'd yet is kind of insane although maybe they're hedging with DXYZ or some kind of private equity.
Yes but potentially naked. Most likely they are selling the risk to institutional investors. See also: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/newsletters/2025-06-26/any...