Retail Access to Private Market Giants
Traditional closed-end funds, interval funds, and special-purpose vehicles once dominated efforts to channel retail capital into the artificial intelligence sector. Today, cryptocurrency exchanges are stepping into that role, enabling everyday traders to speculate on the world’s most valuable unlisted technology companies. This development marks a significant expansion in how private markets are being monetized, as blockchain infrastructure—previously focused on digital token speculation—is now being adapted to provide round-the-clock, leveraged trading access to firms like Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX.
Venues such as Ventuals and PreStocks have experienced a dramatic expansion in activity, with combined open interest and market capitalization tripling from the beginning of the year through last month. Major cryptocurrency exchanges have also started listing pre-initial public offering assets, extending access to tens of millions of users. Meanwhile, Trade.xyz, a derivatives platform operating on the Hyperliquid blockchain, is entering the space.
Derivative Structures and Ownership Realities
These platforms operate through distinct mechanisms, and none grant actual equity ownership. Ventuals, which receives backing from Paradigm, facilitates speculation via perpetual futures. These derivatives lack asset backing, expiration dates, and any direct connection to actual share transactions. Conversely, PreStocks mints tokens on a one-to-one basis against exposure to special-purpose vehicles designed to mirror secondary market share prices. This structure theoretically provides holders a stake in a vehicle holding underlying equity, though Anthropic has publicly cautioned that such arrangements may hold no legal standing and will be treated as void.
Xavier Ekkel, founder at PreStocks, explained that the platform leverages established financial frameworks. “SPVs already represent the majority of traditional pre-IPO secondary volume, including for top private-company names; PreStocks builds on top of that existing structure while bringing real-time price discovery to a historically opaque market,” he said.
Valuation Spikes and Trading Volumes
Market pricing on these platforms has detached significantly from official corporate valuations. Across Ventuals and PreStocks, traders have driven Anthropic’s implied valuation to US$1.6 trillion, which is double the figure established in the company’s latest institutional funding round. These numbers reflect speculative positioning rather than actual equity transactions.
Trading activity has grown rapidly. According to Artemis Analytics, Ventuals has processed approximately US$500 million in volume since its November launch, while PreStocks has recorded over US$630 million in aggregate volume since September. The platforms cater to a retail audience that currently lacks conventional channels to invest in AI laboratories, robotics startups, and aerospace ventures.
“Ventuals matches the public’s interest in transformative technology with real, tradable markets,” noted Alvin Hsia, co-founder of Ventuals. Representatives for Anthropic, SpaceX, and OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment regarding the on-chain trading activity.
Market Signals and Historical Precedents
Despite the speculative nature of the derivatives, some industry participants view the on-chain pricing as a reflection of genuine institutional demand. Jesse Leimgruber, co-founder of AI hardware company OpenHome, monitors Ventuals to gauge the value of his private Anthropic shares. In April, he noted on X that a secondary market offer he received aligned closely with the platform’s implied valuation, suggesting the derivatives market is tracking real capital flows rather than pure speculation.
Current data from Artemis indicates that Anthropic holds twice the tokenized interest of OpenAI, mirroring trends in traditional secondary markets where investor focus has shifted toward Anthropic. The company recently secured a US$10 billion investment from Google at a US$350 billion valuation, while other backers have extended cash offers valuing the firm at US$800 billion. “Demand for exposure to the startup and its rivals is astonishing across the board, from retail to funds,” said Andrew Van Aken, stablecoin lead at Artemis.
This expansion of blockchain technology into real-world assets follows a broader industry shift toward tokenized Treasury funds, money-market instruments, and private credit vehicles. However, attempts to digitize private equity have previously triggered regulatory and corporate pushback. Last year, Robinhood Markets stock declined after OpenAI publicly distanced itself from a brokerage’s equity token offering tied to the company, which was led by Sam Altman. OpenAI clarified that it had neither collaborated on nor endorsed the initiative.
