&gt; If the public market can&#x27;t &#x27;absorb&#x27; it, then the prices will fall. A marketplace exists at these high pries because that&#x27;s what people are willing to pay.<p>One structural difference between the private market and the public market is that in the public market, it&#x27;s possible to short-sell a company&#x27;s stock, and this is an important component in how the market settles on a price. In the private market, it&#x27;s usually impossible to short-sell, so private prices may be biased upward relative to what they &quot;would be&quot; in a public market.<p>I&#x27;m not sure how big this effect is, though; just pointing out one reasonable possible source of difference between private and public pricing here.