Coinbase Takes On Binance With OpenAI and Anthropic Pre-IPO Futures

Coinbase Global Inc.'s stock broke its three-day losing streak after launching pre-IPO perpetual futures contracts for AI giants OpenAI and Anthropic. The company's expansion of its crypto derivatives market comes on the heels of a successful rollout for SpaceX's pre-IPO contracts earlier this month.

The launch follows Coinbase's introduction of similar contracts for Elon Musk's SpaceX, marking a growing push by digital asset platforms to offer retail investors speculative exposure to highly valued private tech firms. The company now supports limit, market, stop, and stop-limit orders for both instruments, which are structured as perpetual futures.

The pre-IPO instruments track and speculate on the projected valuations of the companies based on secondary market trends and publicly disclosed funding rounds. OpenAI and Anthropic have reportedly filed confidentially for initial public offerings (IPOs), with market experts projecting potential stock market debuts by the end of the year.

Coinbase's move into pre-IPO perpetual futures puts it in direct competition with Binance, which launched its own offerings for OpenAI and Anthropic alongside a successful SpaceX contract. Binance's contracts include unique features such as tokenized stock variations and yield opportunities through integrated Web3 wallets.