Bitcoin and Dogecoin Faltered in 2026, But This Little-Known Token Exploded 375% as SpaceX IPO Fever Took Over

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An under-the-radar cryptocurrency has delivered stratospheric gains in recent months, while more popular premium cryptocurrencies have struggled.

VELVET Defies Crypto Bear Market

Velvet (VELVET), which operates primarily on BNB Chain (CRYPTO: BNB), has jumped 378% year-to-date.

Contrast this with Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) and Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE), which have lost a significant chunk of their value in 2026.

Cryptocurrency YTD Gains +/-
VELVET +378%
Bitcoin               -27.28%
Ethereum                     -36.47%
Dogecoin                -44.41

What Sparked Velvet’s Rally

Velvet is an AI-powered decentralized finance operating system and trading terminal that streamlines onchain research, trading and portfolio management.

According to CoinMarketCap, the introduction of synthetic pre IPO products on the platform played a major role in boosting its price. Users were allowed to trade tokenized, leveraged pre IPO exposure directly from Velvet’s on-chain terminal.

In fact, as Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) public listing approached, VELVET exploded 1,400% in a week.

“This surge was driven by intense trader interest in the SpaceX and AI pre-IPO markets,” CoinMarketCap said. 

Price Action: At the time of writing, VELVET was trading at $0.6772, up 201.17% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Photo courtesy: Samuel Boivin / Shutterstock.com