OKX is preparing to offer perpetual futures tied to private companies including OpenAI, SpaceX and Anthropic, intensifying a growing race among crypto companies to bring pre-IPO speculation markets onto the chain, the company said Wednesday in a blog post.
The contracts will provide synthetic price exposure to private companies ahead of their planned public listings, without granting actual share ownership or shareholder rights.
Bitget entered the sector in April with “IPO Prime,” which includes a token tied to Solana-based SpaceX issued through investment platform Republic. Last year, Injective launched pre-IPO perpetual futures tied to companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX and Perplexity, describing the products as a way to bring the $13 trillion private equity market “directly to the chain.”
The trend also reflects how crypto exchanges are increasingly moving beyond bitcoin. and ether (ETH) trading to include stocks, prediction markets, and real-world assets as they seek new sources of trading activity.
Robinhood tried something similar but took a different approach last year. The fintech platform offered OpenAI-pegged tokens backed by a special purpose vehicle that held shares purchased on the secondary market, rather than direct share ownership.
OpenAI publicly distanced itself from the product at the time, warning that any transfer of the company’s actual equity would require its approval.
