[threedots]

Secondary markets provide liquidity for primary investors which makes making primary investments much more attractive. A stock market is just a highly organized kind of secondary market. How many VC investors there would be if they could never sell, or if they could only sell at prices which were random? Without a secondary market all investments would be permanent and that would make investing much less attractive.

Secondary markets also provide important capital allocation benefits. They make it easier for good companies to raise additional capital (e.g. via a rights issue) or buy other businesses (using their shares). They also provide an important benchmarking role allowing non-listed companies to price transactions on the basis of listed company valuations.