Coinbase broadened its pre-IPO trading offerings on June 22 by introducing perpetual futures contracts tied to AI firms OpenAI and Anthropic, aiming to capitalize on soaring investor demand for artificial intelligence exposure. However, early trading performance suggests that the launch has not generated the typical listing boost seen with crypto assets.
While the OPENAI-PERP and ANTHROPIC-PERP contracts were designed to let eligible international traders speculate on private-market valuations, Anthropic’s futures fell sharply within a day of debut. On Coinbase, the ANTHROPIC/USDC contract opened near $1,728 and traded around $1,648 at the time of reporting, a drop of roughly 7%. During the volatile session, the contract ranged from a high of $1,769 to a low of $1,560. Similarly, Binance’s ANTHROPIC/USDT perpetual contract lost about 5% in the same window, touching an all-time low of $1,545 on June 23. Overall, the Binance contract has declined approximately 9% since Coinbase’s listing, underscoring the bearish sentiment.
Traders appeared unfazed even by recent positive business developments for Anthropic, such as a partnership with Micron Technology, worth $1.37 trillion. Instead, market participants focused on the unresolved risks surrounding the IPO. One key concern echoes the experience with SpaceX pre-IPO perpetuals, which traded about 15% above the eventual $135 IPO price, leaving some investors with losses when public trading began. Additional pressure came after analysts at KeyBanc assigned SpaceX a “Sector Weight” rating without a price target, prompting a more than 10% decline in its shares.
Further clouding the outlook, Anthropic has not disclosed the number of shares it plans to offer, making it difficult for exchanges to anchor futures pricing. Coinbase itself has warned that the final IPO price could differ by as much as 25% in either direction from current perpetual levels. Amid this uncertainty, interest in private-market products continues to grow, with prediction-market platform Kalshi reportedly exceeding a $2 billion annualized revenue run rate and exploring a public offering.
