Coinbase has launched pre-IPO perpetual futures tied to OpenAI and Anthropic on its International Exchange. The product is only for eligible traders outside the US, and it lets them bet on the private-market valuation of those two AI companies without owning shares or getting any equity rights.
These are USDC-settled perpetual contracts, so they can trade continuously and do not expire on a fixed date. Instead of tracking a public stock price, they reference each company’s total equity valuation.
That matters because access to private-company pricing has usually been limited to venture firms, private equity, and specialist secondary markets. Coinbase is turning that exposure into a tradable derivative for a much wider pool of offshore users.
The real test is whether there is lasting demand for this outside crypto. If traders use these contracts, it would suggest a crypto exchange can package non-crypto market exposure in a format its existing customer base already understands.