Pre-IPO OpenAI and Anthropic perps: what they are, and the risks behind the hype

A new kind of crypto product is making the rounds: contracts that let you "trade OpenAI and Anthropic" 24/7, with leverage, before either company goes public. The pitch is irresistible — get a piece of the two biggest AI companies in the world before Wall Street can. As always, the interesting part is what the banner leaves out.

This is a YieldScope explainer, so let's be clear up front: this is not a yield product. It is leveraged speculation, and it sits at the opposite end of the risk spectrum from earning interest on stablecoins. But it is everywhere right now, so it is worth understanding exactly what it is.

What is actually being offered

The product is a pre-IPO perpetual future — a derivative whose price tracks the estimated value of a private company. You can go long or short, hold it 24/7 with no expiry, and use up to 5x leverage. It settles in USDC. Crucially, you never own a share of the company.

One correction worth making: the version circulating on Telegram channels credits "the Wallet" (Telegram's built-in crypto wallet) with launching this. The actual issuers are Coinbase (via Coinbase Bermuda, with OPENAI-PERP and ANTHROPIC-PERP) and Kraken, both launched on June 22, 2026, with Binance and others following. If you see it inside a Telegram mini-app, it is almost certainly routed to one of these venues on the back end. Know who actually holds the risk.

These products are not available to residents of the US, the EEA, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand — which already tells you something about their regulatory standing.

The valuations behind the hype

The numbers driving the excitement are real:

• Anthropic (the maker of Claude) raised a Series H at a $965 billion valuation, announced May 28, 2026 — nearly tripling its $380 billion valuation from February and, for the first time, eclipsing OpenAI to become the most valuable AI startup.
• OpenAI closed its round at an $852 billion valuation on March 31, 2026, after a record-sized raise. ChatGPT hit 900 million weekly active users in February and reportedly crossed 1 billion monthly users by June.
• Both filed confidentially for IPO in early June 2026, with Anthropic's listing expected in the October–December window. Both are within sight of a $1 trillion valuation.

These are genuine, source-backed figures. The hype is not invented — which is exactly why the product built on top of it deserves a careful look.

Why these products exist now

Pre-IPO perps did not appear in a vacuum. For years, owning a piece of a hot private company was reserved for venture funds and insiders — ordinary investors could only buy in after the IPO, often at a far higher price. Crypto's pitch is to collapse that wall: synthetic exposure to private valuations, open to anyone outside the blocked jurisdictions, 24/7. SpaceX was the first big name to get this treatment, and OpenAI and Anthropic followed within days of each other in June 2026 — precisely because demand for AI exposure is enormous and the IPOs are now close enough to feel real.

That demand is genuine, and the underlying idea — widening access to private markets — is not inherently bad. But the implementation matters enormously. A regulated pre-IPO equity fund and a 5x offshore perpetual are wildly different risk objects wearing similar marketing. The first gives you a real, if illiquid, claim on the company; the second gives you a leveraged bet on a number.

There is also a reflexivity problem unique to these contracts. The perp price is meant to reflect the company's valuation — but with no public shares, the perp price is the most visible valuation signal many traders ever see. A number designed to follow reality can start to lead the narrative, especially when leverage amplifies every move. Treat the contract's price as a crowd's opinion, not a fact about the company.

What a pre-IPO perpetual future really is

A perpetual future is the same instrument crypto traders use to bet on BTC or ETH with leverage — except here the underlying is the estimated valuation of a private company instead of a token's price. There is no expiry date, it trades around the clock, and an index (Kraken uses its own synthetic pre-market index) sets the reference price.

The thing to internalize: you are trading a number, not a company. The contract gives you no shares, no voting rights, no dividends, no claim on assets. After an eventual IPO, the contract is meant to convert to a standard futures product on the listed stock — but until then, what you hold is a bet on where other traders think the valuation is.

The risks the banner skips

1. No equity. You own nothing of OpenAI or Anthropic. If the company does brilliantly, you profit only if the contract's price moves your way — and you carry counterparty risk on the exchange the whole time.
2. Leverage cuts both ways. At 5x, a 20% move against you wipes the position out via liquidation. Private-company valuations can gap hard on a single headline.
3. The price is set by a derivative, not a market. Before an IPO there is no public, liquid share price. The contract's value is traders' opinion plus an index — thin liquidity means wide spreads and flash liquidations.
4. IPO gap risk. The real listing price can land far from where the perp traded. Analysts have openly warned of an "IPO shock" when these names actually list.
5. The IPO might not happen on schedule — or at all. A delay or cancellation leaves the contract hanging with uncertain terms.
6. Regulatory and venue risk. These trade through offshore entities and are blocked in major jurisdictions. If the venue restricts or closes the product, your position is at its mercy.

How this fits a yield-focused strategy

Honestly? It mostly doesn't — and that contrast is the useful takeaway.

Earning yield on crypto is about a predictable return for a known risk: you lend or stake, you get paid a rate, and your main job is checking the platform won't lose your principal. A 5x pre-IPO perp is the opposite: an unpredictable, leveraged bet where you can lose everything on a 20% move, with no income while you hold.

There is nothing wrong with speculation if you go in clear-eyed and with money you can lose. The danger is when a leveraged derivative is marketed with the same casual tone as a savings product — "get a piece of Anthropic!" — to an audience that thinks it is buying something safe. They are not the same activity, and they should not occupy the same slice of your portfolio.

If your goal is putting crypto to work for a steady return instead, that is what we actually track.

Bottom line

Pre-IPO perps on OpenAI and Anthropic are a real product built on real, eye-watering valuations — but they are leveraged speculation, not ownership and not yield. You are trading other people's opinion of a private valuation, with 5x leverage, on an offshore venue, ahead of an IPO that could gap or slip. Know exactly which of those risks you are signing up for.

For the boring-but-durable side of crypto — earning a rate you can actually plan around — compare live earn rates by safety grade on YieldScope, and read is crypto staking safe? for how we think about risk.

Not financial advice. Leveraged derivatives can lose your entire position. Valuations and product availability change.