Offer price, open, high, close: an IPO headline has four prices. How the offer price gets set and why a $20 deal can trade at $30 or $17

An IPO headline can carry four different prices: the offer price, the opening price, the intraday high and the first-day close. Shares offered at $20 that open at $28 "popped". Fall to $17 and the stock "broke issue". MEXC Learn's new explainer separates what each number actually is.

The image is the official cover art from that MEXC Learn article: silver candlesticks above a tilted balance beam, with silver Bitcoin coins underneath. There is no data in it.

1. The offer price is negotiated, not discovered

Before listing, the company and its underwriters set an indicative range using revenue, profit, cash flow, growth, comparable listed companies and the market's risk appetite. Then they collect indications of interest from institutions: how many shares, at what price. That is bookbuilding.

MEXC's example: 20 million shares at an indicative $18 to $22. Orders far above 20 million at $22 can push pricing to the top of the range. Weak demand can mean a lower price, fewer shares or a postponed deal.

The two sides want different things. The company wants a higher price to raise more. Underwriters have to place the shares, and a price that is too aggressive risks a weak book or a bad first day.

2. Money raised is not the valuation

A company with 100 million shares issues 20 million new ones at $20:

• raised: 20M x $20 = $400 million
• shares after the deal: 120 million
• implied equity value: 120M x $20 = $2.4 billion

Nobody paid $2.4 billion. That figure just applies one price to every share. Also check whether the shares sold are new (money goes to the company) or sold by existing holders (money goes to them).

3. A small float can turn $20 into $30 fast

In that example only the 20 million IPO shares may trade freely at first, about 17% of the 120 million. Founder, employee and early-investor shares can be locked up. If buyers want 5 million shares and only 1 million are offered near the last price, market orders walk up the book. The company didn't change overnight; supply was thin.

MEXC also flags the volume trap: high volume is trades that already happened. Depth is what's resting near the price now. A thin book means more slippage for bigger orders.

And a pop from $20 to $30 is a 50% gain only for whoever got an allocation at $20. Someone buying at $30 has a $30 cost basis.

4. Why a hot IPO can still fall below its offer price

• The offer price may already assume too much growth.
• Rates, peer valuations or risk appetite can shift between bookbuilding and day one.
• Oversubscription shows interest at the offer terms, not willingness to keep buying higher. Some buyers came in to sell on day one.
• Good news can already be in the price; the company has to beat what the valuation expects.

5. Lock-ups change supply later

MEXC cites SEC investor material saying IPO lock-ups have often run around 180 days, though the real period is in the prospectus. When they end, insiders may sell. That doesn't force the price down, but the small float behind early trading may not stay small.

The three-price check MEXC suggests

Compare the valuation from the latest private round, the IPO offer price and the price once public trading starts. A gap between them is not free money. It usually means the buyers, the information and the available supply changed.

Last point from the piece: pre-IPO exposure, an IPO allocation, listed shares, tokenized stocks and stock futures can all reference the same company with very different rights, settlement and risk. Know which one you hold.