Crypto exchange OKX is expanding its trading product offerings related to private technology companies in the European market, launching pre-IPO perpetual contracts related to OpenAI and Anthropic. Traders do not need to hold actual shares of the two companies and can trade based on changes in their valuations by going long or short, with leverage of up to 10x.
The significance of this move is not merely the addition of two new trading instruments. As major artificial intelligence companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic have long remained at the center of capital market attention, “pre-IPO assets” outside traditional stock markets are becoming a new trading scenario pursued by crypto trading platforms. By entering this field, OKX is effectively attempting to further bring the demand for valuation trading in private markets into the crypto derivatives system.
What exactly has OKX launched?
The products launched this time are pre-IPO perpetual contracts. Their core is not to allow investors to obtain shares of OpenAI or Anthropic in advance, but to provide a derivative for trading around changes in corporate valuations.
For example, if a trader believes OpenAI’s future valuation may rise, they can choose to go long; if they believe its valuation may fall, they can go short. When leverage is used, a smaller amount of principal can establish greater market exposure, but at the same time, losses caused by price fluctuations will also be amplified.
Therefore, these products are fundamentally different from purchasing shares of private companies.
Actual private shareholders generally hold corresponding equity interests, while holders of pre-IPO perpetual contracts do not obtain ownership, voting rights or other shareholder rights in the company. Traders are actually betting on price changes related to the company’s valuation.
This distinction is very important because it determines that the product is closer to a financial derivative rather than “buying stocks in advance.”
Why have OpenAI and Anthropic become trading instruments?
OpenAI and Anthropic are currently both major private technology companies receiving high levels of market attention. Since they have not yet offered shares to ordinary investors through traditional public stock markets, individual investors who want to participate in their valuation growth generally need to go through financing rounds, private equity markets or other secondary trading channels, and these markets often have restrictions regarding investor qualifications, trading thresholds and liquidity.
Pre-IPO perpetual contracts provide a completely different path.
They do not solve the problem of “how to obtain company equity,” but rather solve the problem of “how to trade around market expectations for private companies.”
This is also where OKX’s product has certain market significance: private companies do not need to complete an IPO first, and exchanges can also establish a derivatives market around their valuation expectations.
From the perspective of trading platforms, this means that the boundaries of tradable assets are expanding. In the past, crypto trading platforms mainly built derivatives markets around digital assets such as BTC and ETH. Now, trading targets are gradually extending to broader financial assets such as artificial intelligence companies, traditional stocks and ETFs.
OKX is not the first exchange to enter this market
Competition has already emerged in this sector.
Hyperliquid previously launched markets related to OpenAI and Anthropic through HIP-3, while Binance has also provided pre-IPO perpetual contracts for the two companies. Therefore, OKX’s launch this time is not creating an entirely new asset class, but competing for trading volume in a market where demand has already emerged.
This also means that future competition among exchanges may no longer be limited to “who has more cryptocurrency trading pairs,” but may gradually shift toward who can provide more tradable real-world assets and private-market assets.
For traders, when choosing a platform, they need to pay attention not only to the number of instruments, but also to liquidity, spreads, leverage rules, funding rates, liquidation mechanisms and the pricing mechanism actually tracked by the product.
Especially for pre-IPO assets, there is no continuous and transparent trading price like that of public stocks. Therefore, how derivative prices are formed, which valuation data they reference, and whether sufficient liquidity can be maintained during sharp market fluctuations will directly affect the trading experience.
Tokenized stocks and pre-IPO perpetual contracts are two different routes
OKX is also expanding its tokenized stock products at the same time. It currently offers around 100 stocks and ETFs for 24/7 trading, including Nvidia, Google, Palantir, as well as products such as SPY and QQQ.
On the surface, both tokenized stocks and pre-IPO perpetual contracts bring traditional financial assets to crypto trading platforms, but their trading logic is different.
Tokenized stocks mainly track the price of underlying securities, allowing users to obtain price exposure through on-chain or crypto platforms; pre-IPO perpetual contracts are closer to pure derivatives trading, and users do not own the actual shares of the corresponding company.
Therefore, OKX is actually developing two directions at the same time:
One side consists of stocks and ETFs that have already entered public markets, while the other consists of private companies that have not yet IPOed.
If this model continues to expand, the asset life cycle that trading platforms can cover will also extend, from valuation trading during the stage when companies have not yet gone public all the way to public-market assets after an IPO.
Why is the European market worth watching?
Erald Ghoos, OKX’s head of European business, said that demand for derivatives on the platform is growing. According to data disclosed by OKX, since the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) transition period ended in July, trading volume of its X-Perps in Europe has grown by about 4 times.
This data at least indicates one phenomenon: demand for crypto derivatives trading in the European market is increasing.
Against this background, OKX’s launch of new pre-IPO perpetual contracts can be understood as an attempt to further expand its derivatives product coverage in Europe.
However, an increase in trading volume does not mean that a particular product will necessarily succeed over the long term. For pre-IPO perpetual contracts, what is truly worth observing is whether trading enthusiasm can turn into sustained market depth and whether the products can maintain stable pricing and liquidity during sharp market movements.
The risk is not “whether it can be traded,” but “how the price is formed”
One of the biggest risks of these products is that traders may easily mistake “being tradable” for “owning the asset.”
In fact, the two are completely different.
If the private-market valuation of OpenAI or Anthropic changes, the price of perpetual contracts may also fluctuate accordingly, but the contract price is not equivalent to the actual value of the company’s stock. In addition, with leverage of up to 10x, short-term price fluctuations may rapidly amplify traders’ gains and losses.
Furthermore, the valuation of pre-IPO companies itself may be affected by factors such as financing rounds, private-market transactions and market expectations. When continuous public-market quotations are unavailable, the price discovery mechanism may be more complicated than that of traditional stocks.
Therefore, traders need to focus on liquidity, funding rates, leverage, liquidation rules, valuation reference mechanisms and the platform’s product terms, rather than judging that a product has investment value simply because its underlying asset is a popular AI company.
What does the market need to watch next?
The signal released by OKX’s move this time is more worth watching than the addition of the two trading instruments itself.
First, whether pre-IPO perpetual contracts will expand to more private technology companies. If OpenAI and Anthropic can generate stable trading volume, more unlisted companies may become candidates for similar products.
Second, whether tokenized stocks and crypto derivatives will become further integrated. OKX has already developed products related to stocks, ETFs and private companies at the same time. In the future, trading platforms may gradually become comprehensive trading gateways connecting digital assets, public securities and private-market assets.
Third, how the European regulatory environment will affect the development of such products. Under the MiCA framework, exchanges need to continuously adapt to regulatory requirements regarding product offerings, investor protection and market operations. The fact that a product can be launched does not mean that its future regulatory environment will not change.
Overall, what is truly worth watching about OKX launching pre-IPO perpetual contracts for OpenAI and Anthropic is not that “a crypto exchange has added two more popular instruments,” but that private-company valuations are entering the crypto market in the form of derivatives.
If this model can obtain sufficient liquidity and sustained trading demand, the asset boundaries of crypto trading platforms may further expand from digital currencies to traditional securities and even pre-IPO assets. At the same time, issues such as valuation transparency, price discovery, leverage and regulation will determine whether this market can develop into a long-term trading category or merely remain a short-term trading opportunity driven by popular assets.