- Lead. Coinbase Markets activated trading in ANTHROPIC-PERP and OPENAI-PERP perpetual futures contracts on June 22, giving eligible non-US traders the first public market route to express a view on the valuations of the two most closely watched private AI companies before they go public.
- Fact. The combined private valuation of Anthropic and OpenAI stands at $1.817 trillion, based on their most recent funding rounds — Anthropic at $965 billion following a $65 billion Series H, OpenAI at $852 billion after a March 2026 capital raise.
- Stake. Fundstrat’s Tom Lee has warned that a wave of large AI-company IPOs could generate significant market turbulence later in 2026, as investors rotate capital into newly listed shares.
The launch follows the template Coinbase established with the SpaceX IPO, when it offered pre-IPO derivative contracts before the company’s June 11 Nasdaq debut. The platform is now moving further along the AI IPO pipeline, opening perpetual futures for two companies that have both filed confidential draft S-1 registration statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission within the last month.
How the Contracts Work
According to Brave New Coin, both instruments are USDC-settled perpetual futures that trade 24 hours a day with no expiry date. Coinbase prices them off total company valuation divided by one billion — a deliberate choice that avoids the need to invent a per-share price before either company has finalised its IPO terms and share count.
Once an IPO closes and a final prospectus is filed, the pre-IPO contracts are designed to convert automatically into standard equity-linked perpetual futures, priced off the live share price. Contracts are available through Coinbase Bermuda Ltd to eligible users outside the United States.
The IPO Timelines
Anthropic filed its confidential S-1 with the SEC on June 1, with analyst consensus pointing to a market debut between October and December 2026. OpenAI followed with its own confidential filing on June 8, though no IPO date has been confirmed; estimates cluster around late 2026 or early 2027. Together the two listings — if priced near current private valuations — would represent an unprecedented injection of AI equity into public markets.
The Tom Lee Warning
Fundstrat’s Tom Lee flagged the concentration risk in a note timed to the Coinbase launch. A sequence of massive AI-company IPOs in a compressed window could force retail and institutional investors to liquidate existing positions across equities, bonds, and crypto to fund subscriptions — the same dynamic that BNP Paribas estimated triggered $50 billion in retail liquidations ahead of the SpaceX IPO. For derivative traders, the Coinbase contracts offer a way to express that view without waiting for the IPO window to open.