How Kraken’s OpenAI and Anthropic Pre-IPO Perps Work

Kraken has listed two pre-IPO perpetual futures—PF_OPENAIXUSD and PF_ANTHROPICXUSD—that allow eligible clients to trade price exposure to OpenAI and Anthropic before either company is publicly listed. The contracts are a derivative on a proprietary valuation reference, not equity in either company. Traders receive no shares, voting rights, dividends, IPO allocation, or other ownership claim. 712

What traders are actually buying or selling

A perpetual future, or “perp,” is a derivative with no preset expiration date. On these markets, a trader can take a long position if they expect the indicated valuation to rise or a short position if they expect it to fall. Kraken says the contracts are cash-settled and support multi-collateral, or “flex,” margin, with leverage of up to 5x. 712

The contract specifications list both products with a 0.01 minimum lot and tick size, a maximum position of 1,000 base units, and Class F margin with a 5x maximum leverage limit. Both began trading on June 15, 2026. 512

That 5x figure is a maximum, not a promise that every account or position will receive that leverage. As with other margined derivatives, permitted leverage and required collateral can depend on position size, account eligibility and Kraken’s risk controls.

The price is a synthetic reference, not a public share price

OpenAI and Anthropic are private companies, so there is no continuously quoted public stock price for a conventional futures market to track. Kraken instead uses a purpose-built PreMarket Synthetic index for these products. Kraken describes that index as smoothed and tightly bounded to help resist flash liquidations in a thin, early market. 12

This distinction is central: the contract is a market for synthetic price exposure, not a verified, real-time statement of either company’s enterprise value or share value. A private-company valuation can depend on financing terms, secondary transactions, capital structure and IPO expectations—information that is not equivalent to a live public equity market.

Some reporting describes the mark-price design as using a 0.25% clamp around its reference mechanism. 2 However, the supplied Kraken materials describe the system at a higher level and do not provide a complete public methodology for independently reproducing the synthetic index. Traders should therefore not assume that the contract price is an externally auditable spot valuation, or that it will match a later IPO price.

Why smoothing matters—and what it cannot solve

Kraken’s stated purpose for smoothing and bounds is to reduce the chance that a brief move in a thin order book causes cascading liquidations. 12 That can limit the immediate effect of a sudden trade or short-lived order-book distortion on the mark used for risk management.

But smoothing is a market-control feature, not proof of an objective underlying valuation. It may also mean the mark responds differently from the last traded price during fast moves. The available sources do not provide an independently audited history of realised volatility, market depth, spreads or liquidation frequency for these specific OpenAI and Anthropic contracts. Kraken itself characterizes pre-IPO perpetuals as speculative, and the special pricing design reflects the unusual challenge of trading a private-company reference. 712

Margin, leverage and liquidation risk

Leverage increases both potential gains and losses. At the maximum 5x leverage, a trader controls up to $5 of notional exposure for each $1 posted as margin. 8 A sufficiently adverse move can exhaust available margin quickly, particularly once trading costs, funding, maintenance requirements and slippage are considered.

The practical risk is greater than simply being wrong about whether OpenAI or Anthropic will become more valuable over time. A position can be affected by the contract’s synthetic reference, changing liquidity, order-book conditions and risk-management rules. Traders should review Kraken’s current contract specifications and account-level margin terms before entering a position.

Who can access the contracts?

Kraken says the products are available only to eligible clients and excludes customers in the United States, the European Economic Area, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. 711 In the UK, retail clients cannot trade derivatives; clients categorized as elective professional clients may be eligible subject to applicable criteria. 12

Eligibility can also change with a client’s location, classification and local rules. “Non-U.S.” is therefore not, by itself, a guarantee that an account can trade these contracts.

Bermuda, competitors and the regulatory question

The supplied Kraken material confirms a non-U.S. derivatives offering, but it does not establish that these particular Kraken contracts are licensed through a Bermuda entity. Reporting specifically links Coinbase Bermuda to Coinbase’s competing OpenAI and Anthropic pre-IPO perpetuals. 6

The category is broader than Kraken. Reports identify analogous private-company valuation products from Coinbase, OKX and Crypto.com. 615 The regulatory questions extend beyond whether a contract delivers stock: authorities may examine product disclosure, leverage, client eligibility, market integrity and whether customers understand that synthetic exposure is not equity ownership. 15

What happens if OpenAI or Anthropic goes public?

An IPO would not convert a perp position into shares. Kraken says it intends to convert the contracts to the public listing if and when OpenAI or Anthropic completes an IPO, while its FAQ warns of conversion risk. 712

The exact transition matters. Depending on Kraken’s applicable terms and event notice, the exchange could change the reference, adjust or migrate the contract, or use another transition process. The final synthetic pre-IPO price may differ materially from an IPO offering price or the first public trading price.

That gap is not merely a technical detail. An IPO introduces new information about pricing, share count, trading venue and market demand, any of which can cause a discontinuity between the pre-IPO synthetic reference and public-market trading. For holders, an IPO should be treated as a major contract event—not as automatic participation in the public offering.

Bottom line

Kraken’s OpenAI and Anthropic perps make it possible for eligible clients to express a leveraged bullish or bearish view before a public listing. But the trade is on Kraken’s cash-settled synthetic reference, not on company shares. The lack of a conventional public spot market, the use of a proprietary pricing framework, leverage, and the uncertainty of an eventual IPO transition make these products substantially different from buying a listed stock. 712