London, UK, March 11th, 2026,
Hecto Finance has launched a prediction market allowing users to forecast the relative performance of major private companies, including SpaceX, OpenAI, and Stripe, as part of a broader effort to bring price discovery to private markets.
The platform is now live on the Canton Network and represents the first phase of Hecto’s roadmap to build a tokenized index fund tracking some of the world’s most valuable private companies.
While these companies are typically accessible only to institutional or accredited investors, Hecto’s platform allows users to engage with private market valuations through a prediction-based mechanism.
A Market for Private Company Valuations
Users participate by converting $CC, the native token of the Canton Network, into Hecto’s utility token $HECTO at a rate of 1:100.
Participants then allocate their $HECTO to private companies they expect to show higher estimated valuation growth during each prediction cycle.
Companies included in the market must have valuations above $100 billion, a category Hecto refers to as “hectocorns.”
At the end of each cycle:
- Users who correctly predict the top-performing company receive rewards in $CC
- Users who make incorrect predictions retain their $HECTO tokens and can participate again in the next round
The system is designed to create crowdsourced price signals for private companies, a segment of the market where valuation transparency is historically limited.
Bootstrapping Governance for the Future Index
Beyond generating valuation signals, the prediction market also distributes and stakes $HECTO tokens, which will later power governance for the protocol’s planned tokenized private equity index.
Funds raised during the early phase of the platform will be used to acquire pre-IPO shares that will ultimately back the index, enabling users to transition from forecasting private company performance to participating in an investment vehicle tied to those assets.
“Private markets have historically lacked transparent price discovery,” said Ultan Miller, CEO of Hecto. “Our goal is to create an open market where users can collectively signal which companies they believe will define the next generation of technology — and ultimately give them a pathway to participate in those opportunities.”
Validating Infrastructure on Canton
The launch also serves as a live test of the CIP-56 token standard on the Canton Network, demonstrating the network’s ability to support DeFi-style governance and tokenized financial applications.
By running a prediction market in production, Hecto is testing the technical framework that will support future phases of the platform, including tokenized real-world equity assets.
From Participation to Ownership
Beginning March 9, users will participate in prediction cycles that allow the community to indicate which private companies they expect to perform more strongly.
The insights and governance participation generated through the platform will help shape Hecto’s forthcoming tokenized private equity index, which the company intends to back with pre-IPO shares acquired during the early phase of the protocol.
About Hecto
Hecto is building a tokenized index fund designed to track the world’s most valuable private companies, including SpaceX, OpenAI, Stripe, and Anthropic. Built on the Canton Network, the platform combines blockchain infrastructure with institutional-grade compliance to expand access to private market investing.
Users can register at: https://test-app.hecto.finance/
Contact
Media Representative
Clara Kelly
Genius PR
clara@theprgenius.com
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