Kraken is offering perpetual futures linked to the private-market valuations of OpenAI and Anthropic, giving eligible traders leveraged exposure to the two artificial intelligence companies before either completes a public listing.
The cash-settled contracts allow traders to take both long and short positions without an expiration date, with maximum leverage of 5x. OpenAI trades under the PF_OPENAIXUSD symbol, while the Anthropic contract is listed as PF_ANTHROPICXUSD and supports multi-collateral margin.
The contracts do not represent shares in either company. Traders receive no ownership rights, voting rights, dividends, information rights or claim on company assets, and the products do not provide an allocation in any future initial public offering. Kraken also states that it has no affiliation with, endorsement from or sponsorship by OpenAI or Anthropic.
Instead, the products are derivatives designed to track market expectations surrounding the companies’ valuations. Positions are settled in U.S. dollars through Kraken’s multi-collateral derivatives accounts, with supported assets available as margin subject to the exchange’s collateral and risk requirements.
Kraken has promoted the Anthropic contract again on Sept. 6 after initially announcing both products in June. The contracts are intended to provide directional exposure or potentially hedge other positions, although their usefulness as a hedge against privately held shares depends on how closely the synthetic futures price tracks the value of those shares.
Private-company shares do not trade continuously on a centralized public exchange and can change hands through secondary markets at different prices and under varying transfer restrictions. As a result, Kraken’s synthetic contracts may diverge significantly from the price of a specific private shareholding.
Because neither OpenAI nor Anthropic has publicly traded shares, Kraken cannot use a conventional stock-market price as its reference. Instead, the exchange uses its Kraken PreMarket Synthetic index, which is derived from activity in the perpetual market.
Kraken applies exponential smoothing to the index to reduce the effect of short-lived order-book movements and make the reference price adjust more gradually. Contract mark prices are also limited to a range within 0.25% above or below the synthetic index, a mechanism intended to reduce liquidations triggered by temporary price spikes in relatively thin markets.
The pricing system does not eliminate valuation risk. With no liquid public share market providing an independent reference, the synthetic index can reflect the collective expectations of derivatives traders. Limited liquidity could also result in wider spreads and make positions more expensive to enter or exit during periods of high volatility.
Both contracts have a base maximum leverage of 5x, requiring initial margin equivalent to 20% of the position’s value at that level. The base maintenance margin is 10%, although leverage declines for larger positions, with published tiers moving from 5x to approximately 3.3x and then 2x as exposure increases.
Funding payments are calculated hourly. Kraken describes funding as structurally minimal during the pre-IPO period because the mark price remains within the narrow range around the synthetic index, although actual funding costs can change with market conditions, positioning, liquidity and contract specifications.
The products also carry auto-deleveraging risk. If Kraken cannot close a liquidated counterparty position through the order book, profitable positions may be reduced under the exchange’s auto-deleveraging mechanism. Kraken warns that customers can lose their entire margin and that leveraged losses can exceed the initial deposit depending on market conditions and account arrangements.
Access is geographically restricted. The OpenAI and Anthropic perpetuals are unavailable to customers in the United States, European Economic Area, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In the United Kingdom, access is limited to professional clients.
The products are offered through Payward Digital Solutions in Bermuda, which Kraken says is licensed to conduct digital-asset business by the Bermuda Monetary Authority.
Kraken is not the only exchange developing markets around private companies. Coinbase has introduced similar perpetuals tied to OpenAI and Anthropic for eligible users outside the U.S., while other platforms have offered synthetic exposure to companies approaching public listings.
The expansion of these products has raised regulatory questions because they combine leveraged cryptocurrency derivatives with valuations of private companies whose financial information and share transactions are generally less transparent than those of publicly listed corporations.
Kraken has also outlined how the contracts could change if either company completes an IPO. The exchange plans to replace the current synthetic reference with an index based on the relevant company’s xStocks product. Initial and maintenance margin requirements, position limits and funding rules are expected to change, with further details to be provided before any conversion.
An IPO is not guaranteed by the existence of these contracts, and holding one does not give traders access to shares in a future offering. If a reliable public reference price cannot be established, Kraken reserves the right to delist and settle the affected contract under its applicable rules.
The eventual synthetic price could also differ substantially from an IPO or subsequent public-market valuation. The introduction of a liquid public reference price could therefore trigger significant price adjustments, creating additional opportunities for gains but also increasing the risk of losses and liquidations.
Following a potential conversion, the products would more closely resemble Kraken’s existing perpetual contracts linked to tokenized equities. Those products are separate from the current OpenAI and Anthropic contracts and are backed by listed securities, whereas the pre-IPO contracts currently rely on a synthetic valuation.
Kraken has continued expanding its tokenized-equity infrastructure, with its xStocks platform providing tokenized exposure to a broad range of listed securities. The company has also pursued additional partnerships that could expand the range of securities available through the platform, subject to regulatory approval.
