How to buy Unitree stock (688836)
Unitree makes the humanoid and quadruped robots you have seen backflipping across the internet. On August 19, 2026 it became the first pure-play humanoid robot stock on a mainland Chinese exchange, and the debut was enormous. It is also a stock that, if you live outside China, you almost certainly cannot buy. This page explains why, and what the alternative looks like.
What just happened
Unitree priced its STAR Market IPO on August 6, 2026 at 150.80 yuan a share, roughly $22, valuing the company near $9 billion. The offering was a record-breaker before it traded: Reuters reported the book more than 8,000 times oversubscribed, the strongest retail demand the STAR Market has ever seen. DeepSeek, Tencent, PetroChina and Meituan took strategic allocations, with DeepSeek locked up for 36 months.
On August 19 the stock listed under the code 688836, opened up 629% at 1,100 yuan and closed its first day at 845 yuan, up 460%, a market value of about 342 billion yuan, roughly $48 billion. Days before the listing, the pre-IPO perpetual market on Hyperliquid had already priced Unitree above $100 a share. The euphoria faded fast: by September 2, less than two weeks after the debut, the shares had fallen below 550 yuan, roughly half their peak value.
Why foreign retail cannot buy it
The STAR Market is a mainland Chinese exchange behind capital controls. Opening a mainland brokerage account takes local residence and a mainland bank account. The Stock Connect schemes that let foreigners trade some Shanghai and Shenzhen names do not cover a newly listed STAR stock for ordinary investors, and the qualified foreign institutional channel is built for institutions, not individuals. A retail trader in New York, London or Singapore has no normal way in, and the China ETFs that will eventually hold the stock buy it only after index inclusion, diluted across the whole basket.
What Based offers instead
UNITREE is a market on Hyperliquid, a decentralised trading platform, that tracks Unitree's price. It quoted the company for days before the listing, and now that the stock trades, the perp tracks the live price. Based is the self-custody wallet you trade it from. Access needs no brokerage account, no bank account, just a self-custodial wallet funded with USDC. You are trading a derivative: price exposure, long or short, with liquidation risk and funding fees. No shares, no dividends, no voting rights. Based is not a broker.
Be honest with yourself about what this stock is right now. Fresh STAR Market listings are among the most volatile stocks on earth, and this one already trades several times above its IPO price at hundreds of times earnings. The perp tracks that price, including the swings. Leverage on top of that volatility is how accounts get liquidated. Trade small or not at all.
Unitree Robotics (UNITREE)
$96.80-0.7%24h
Mark price at , refreshed hourly. Live price in the app.
SSE STAR (Shanghai) · China · quoted in USD
What to watch
Orders are the first. Unitree shipped more than 5,500 humanoids in 2025, the second-most of any company in the world, at roughly 60% gross margins. Large deployments and order announcements now land on a public stock with a small free float, which tends to amplify moves in both directions.
The second is the sector wave behind it. Chinese industry reporting counts 20 to 30 robotics companies in IPO coaching or filing across 2026 and 2027, with Deep Robotics already filed for the STAR Market and AgiBot planning a Hong Kong listing. Each new listing gives the market another benchmark to price Unitree against, and future index reviews could bring the stock into benchmarks that ETFs track.
The risks are in the numbers already published. Growth is decelerating fast: first-half 2026 revenue rose about 49%, down from 335% for 2025, and profit excluding one-off items fell about 19% as spending rose. And in July 2026 the US FCC added foreign-made advanced robotic equipment to its Covered List, a direct policy overhang for a company that earned about 13% of last year's revenue in the United States.
Also behind the same wall: CXMT, China's DRAM champion, which listed on the same STAR Market in July 2026. We wrote a guide to trading both from outside China, and the memory stocks hub covers the chip side of the AI buildout.
Fees are flat and public: stock perps start at 0.014% taker and 0.008% maker, all-in, before any staking discounts. The full schedule is on the fees page.
Related markets on Based
The bull and bear case for Unitree
Bull case
- Shipped more than 5,500 humanoid robots in 2025, the second-most of any company, at roughly 60 percent gross margins.
- A wave of 20 to 30 Chinese robotics IPOs across 2026 and 2027 gives the market more benchmarks to price it against.
- Future index reviews could add it to benchmarks that ETFs track.
Bear case
- Growth is slowing: first-half 2026 revenue rose about 49 percent, down from 335 percent for 2025.
- Profit excluding one-off items fell about 19 percent in the first half of 2026 as spending rose.
- In July 2026 the US FCC added foreign-made advanced robotic equipment to its Covered List. About 13 percent of 2025 revenue came from the US.
Facts as of September 2026. For information only, not financial advice. Both cases describe the underlying company; on Based you trade a perpetual future that tracks its price, with liquidation risk and funding fees.
Frequently asked questions
- Can foreigners buy Unitree stock?
- Practically, no. Unitree trades on Shanghai's STAR Market under the code 688836, and the STAR Market sits behind China's capital controls. Foreign retail investors cannot open a mainland brokerage account without local residence and a mainland bank account, the Stock Connect schemes do not cover newly listed STAR stocks for ordinary investors, and the qualified foreign institutional channel is for institutions. The UNITREE market on Hyperliquid, traded through Based, is the practical route to price exposure.
- When did Unitree go public?
- Unitree listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's STAR Market on August 19, 2026, priced at 150.80 yuan per share, a valuation of about $9 billion. Demand set a record for the board: Reuters reported the offering more than 8,000 times oversubscribed. The stock opened up 629% and closed its first day up 460% at 845 yuan.
- What is the UNITREE market on Based?
- UNITREE is a market on Hyperliquid, a decentralised trading platform, that tracks Unitree's price, quoted in USD and open 24/7. It ran as a pre-IPO market before the listing and now tracks the listed stock. Based is the self-custody wallet you trade it from. It is a derivative, not equity: no dividends, no voting rights, with liquidation risk and funding fees like any perp.
- Is Unitree profitable?
- Yes, unusually for a humanoid robot maker. Unitree reported about 1.7 billion yuan of revenue in 2025, up 335% year over year, at roughly 60% gross margins, and it shipped more than 5,500 humanoid robots. The honest counterweight: growth has slowed sharply. First-half 2026 revenue rose about 49% to 1.15 billion yuan, and profit excluding one-off items fell about 19% as research and sales spending climbed. The IPO also priced at 219 times earnings.
Start in three steps
- Step 1
Log in
Log in with your email or Google account. Based supports social logins for convenience, provided by Privy, a Stripe company. Wallets are self-custodial: only you have access to your funds. Neither Based nor Privy can access your wallet or account.
- Step 2
Fund it
Deposit USDC. You do not need a bank account to do it.
- Step 3
Trade 24/7
Stock and crypto perps. Nights, weekends, holidays.
Based is a self-custody wallet, not a broker. Markets are perpetual futures on Hyperliquid: derivatives with liquidation risk and funding fees, not the underlying stocks or coins. For information only, not financial advice.