Key takeaways:
- Two perpetual futures markets now allow for betting on the valuations of OpenAI and Anthropic.
- These products do not confer any shares or shareholder rights.
- The platform is simultaneously launching 110 tokenized stock and ETF markets, available for continuous trading.
On September 10, OKX launched two perpetual futures markets in Europe tied to the valuations of OpenAI and Anthropic, offering up to 10x leverage. In parallel, the platform is opening access to around a hundred tokenized stocks and ETFs, which can be traded 24/7.
Many retail investors have been struggling to find a way to gain direct exposure to companies like Anthropic or OpenAI before their initial public offerings.
These private shares are typically traded during fundraising rounds or on secondary markets often restricted to private circles. With this new product, OKX is addressing the growing interest in major private technology companies that are not yet publicly traded.
What a pre-IPO perpetual contract is—and isn't
The distinction is fundamental, and the company is unambiguous about it.
These products do not provide any equity stake in the two labs concerned. They confer no shares, no voting rights, no entitlement to dividends, and no claims against these companies.
These are contracts that allow users to take long or short positions on the movement of a valuation. Gains or losses depend on the movement of this reference price, not on the ownership of any security.
This clarification is far from formal. A buyer of shares in a private company holds a claim on its assets and future performance. A holder of a perpetual contract holds an open position against a counterparty, which can be closed at any time.
What 10x leverage means
The figure speaks for itself when translated into price fluctuations.
With 10x leverage, an unfavorable 10% move wipes out the entire margin committed. With 5x leverage, this threshold is 20%.
The valuations of private tech companies have seen revisions far exceeding these ranges in recent months. In a few months, Anthropic went from 965 billion to a rumored IPO range exceeding 2,000 billion dollars, and OpenAI's estimates have varied by similar proportions.
Tokenized stocks: the second component
The offering includes 90 simplified-mode markets and 20 order-book markets, featuring assets like Nvidia, Google, and Palantir, as well as ETFs such as SPY, QQQ, and SOXL.
These tokens track the price of the underlying asset without conferring ownership of the shares or voting rights. Some can be withdrawn from the platform and stored in a personal wallet.
Advanced orders and trading bots are available, and some of these tokens can be used as collateral for perpetual contracts.
This legal status is a subject of debate elsewhere in the industry. The CEO of AMC challenged the legality of tokens bearing his company's name without his consent last week, and Nasdaq recently invested 100 million dollars in Kraken's parent company to develop tokenized stocks that would retain voting rights.
Users who join via our link can claim a voucher providing 20 euros of margin at 5x leverage, equivalent to a 100-euro position.
The mechanism is asymmetrical by design: the user keeps the eligible gains, while the voucher absorbs losses on the funded position.
This setup limits the loss to the amount offered without changing the nature of the product. Once the voucher is used, subsequent positions involve your own funds and expose you to the corresponding losses.
A highly sought-after market
— OKX (@okx) September 10, 2026Real-world markets just went live in Europe.
We’re launching pre-IPO access to companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, alongside tokenized stocks available 24/7 from one account.
Trade it all on the New Money App.
Erald Ghoos, General Manager, notes growing demand for the group's derivatives business. European volumes on these contracts reportedly quadrupled since the end of the MiCA transition period in July.
What's next?
Both companies are moving toward public markets. Anthropic is expected to unveil its IPO prospectus soon for a listing this autumn, with OpenAI potentially following next year.
An IPO would end the main purpose of these contracts, as a public market price would replace the estimate, likely becoming available in tokenized form on OKX. This is also when the gap between the valuations anticipated by these markets and the actual IPO price will become measurable.
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