Crypto Platforms Now Let Retail Traders Bet on Private AI Companies
Crypto exchanges have begun offering derivatives tied to Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX - companies most ordinary investors cannot access. Trading activity on Ventuals and PreStocks, the two largest platforms offering these instruments, has surged more than threefold since January, reaching combined volumes of over $1.1 billion.
The shift represents a new use case for blockchain infrastructure: moving beyond digital tokens to let traders speculate on private company valuations in real time, 24 hours a day, with leverage available.
How the Markets Work
The two platforms operate differently. Ventuals, backed by investment firm Paradigm, offers perpetual futures - derivatives with no asset backing, no expiration date, and no connection to actual share transactions. Traders speculate on valuations directly.
PreStocks takes another approach. Its tokens are minted one-to-one against special-purpose vehicles (SPVs) that track real shares on secondary markets. Holders own stakes in vehicles intended to hold actual equity, though Anthropic has warned these structures may carry no legal value and that the company treats them as void.
PreStocks sources SPVs through a network of funds and brokers. The company said SPVs already represent the majority of traditional pre-IPO secondary volume for top private companies.
Valuations Diverge Sharply From Recent Funding
Traders have pushed Anthropic's implied valuation to $1.6 trillion across both platforms - double what investors assigned the company in its most recent funding round. These figures reflect speculative positioning, not actual transactions in equity.
Anthropic is currently the most popular asset on both platforms, with twice the trading interest of OpenAI. That mirrors activity in wider secondary markets, where OpenAI shares have fallen out of favor as investors pivot toward Anthropic.
Google recently agreed to invest $10 billion in Anthropic at a $350 billion valuation. Other investors have offered the company cash at $800 billion. Demand for exposure across both companies is "astonishing across the board, from retail to funds," according to Artemis Analytics.
Real-World Prices Suggest Institutional Demand
Jesse Leimgruber, co-founder at AI hardware-maker OpenHome, checks Ventuals to track the value of his Anthropic shares. In April, he posted on X about receiving an offer for those shares through traditional secondary market channels - at prices matching Ventuals' implied valuations.
That alignment suggests the onchain derivatives market is tracking real institutional demand, not just retail speculation.
Broader Trend in Real-World Assets on Blockchain
Pre-IPO derivatives represent the latest retail frontier in a broader shift: crypto infrastructure once designed for digital tokens is now being redeployed for real-world assets. Tokenized Treasury funds, money-market instruments, and private-credit vehicles have already drawn significant capital onto blockchain rails.
The same permissionless architecture that powered memecoin speculation now lets traders access private company shares in real time.
Past Pushback
Previous attempts to carve out equity access through digital-asset technology have faced resistance. Last year, Robinhood Markets shares fell after OpenAI cast doubt on the brokerage's offer of equity tokens tied to the company. OpenAI said it had neither collaborated on nor endorsed the offering.
Anthropic, SpaceX, and OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment on the current platforms.
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