In a competitive move among cryptocurrency firms to capitalize on pre-IPO speculation markets, OKX announced its plans to offer perpetual futures linked to private companies such as OpenAI, SpaceX, and Anthropic. This initiative was detailed in a blog post on Wednesday.
These contracts aim to provide synthetic exposure to the prices of these private entities before their expected public offerings, without conferring actual ownership or shareholder rights.
Bitget had previously ventured into this arena in April with its “IPO Prime” offering, which included a Solana-based token connected to SpaceX, issued via investment platform Republic. In the preceding year, Injective introduced pre-IPO perpetual futures linked to companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, branding these products as means to integrate the $13 trillion private equity sector “directly on-chain.”
This trend underscores how cryptocurrency exchanges are diversifying beyond traditional bitcoin and ether trading by incorporating equities, prediction markets, and other tangible assets in search of new trading opportunities.
Last year, Robinhood attempted a similar strategy but adopted a distinct method. The fintech platform offered tokens tied to OpenAI that were backed by a special purpose vehicle holding equity acquired on the secondary market rather than direct ownership. At that time, OpenAI clarified its position by distancing itself from the product and emphasizing that any transfer of actual company equity would necessitate its approval.